The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1881-12-23
MANKATo FREE PRESS.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER %, 1881.
The Golden Wedding.

Wake up, wifel-the black cloak Of night BE-
And iar in the East the morning his kitchen
fire has made:
And he is heating red-not his stove Of iron
And stars arc winking and blinking before
the light o'day.
Mind you what was doin', just nfty years
agone2-
Brushin' my Sunday raiment and putin my
Clothin' myself in courage 90 none my fright
An my coward heart within, the while, was
pounding to get free.
Ten mile wood an bramble, an three mile field
In the cold smile of morning walked to mar
No horse had but my wishes-no pilot but q
But my boyish heart it fancied 1t heard you
from afar.
So through the woods hurried, an through
the grass an dew.
An little thought o. firing, the whole Of my
Things ne'er before nor after do SO man re-
As on the day he marries the woman Of his
choice.
And then our country wedding-brimful O
grief an glee.
The good cheer went and came, wife, as It
sometimes has done
Summer sun.
There was your good old father, dressed up in
With all the. homespun inery that he could
rake an scrape;.
And your dearhearted mother, the sunlight OF
whose smile
Shone through the showers of tear-drops that
stormed her face the while;
Also your sisters an brothers, who hardly
| seemed to know
How they could scare up courage to let their
An cousins an school-house comrades, dressed
| up in meetin' trim,
With one OF them sulkin because II WASH I
| him:
An there was the good old parson, his neck
| all dressed in white.
| A bunch o texts in his left eye. a hymn-book in
An the parsons virgin daughter, plain and
Who hoped we should be happy, but WASH, ez.
| actly sure:
| And there was the victuals, seasoned with kind
And holly wreaths with breastpins of rubies.
An there was my heart a-wanderin' as how
such things could be,
An there was the world before Us, an there
was You an me.
Wake up, wife! that gold bird, the sum- mas
| come In sight,
And on the tree-top perches to take his daily
| flight.
He Ia not old and feeble, an he will sail away.
As he has done SO often since nifty years to-
day.
You know there's company coming - our
daughters an our sons;
There's John, and James, and Lucy. an all
| their little ones;
And Jennie, she will be here, who in her grave
| doth lie
provided company ever can come from out
| the sky);
And SAM am not certain as he will come,
| ornot;
They say he is black sheep-the widest Of the
| lot.
Before u sons dishonor, q fathers love stands
| dumb;
But still. somehow or other, hope that Sam
| will come.
The tree bends down its branches to its chill
| dren from above
The son Is lord of the father, and rules hin,
with his love;
| And he will e'er be longed for, though far they
| be apart,
| For the drop of blood he carries, that came
| from the fathers heart.
Wake you, wife! the loud sun has reused the
And she has dressed herself up in red and vel.
| low and white;
She has dressed herself for US, wife-for oul
| weddin day once more
And my soul to-day Is younger than ever Il
was before.
From Farm Festivals" a volume OF new
! poems by viii Carlton, to be published sooI
by Harper & Bro.)