Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-06-10


tFrom win Cartoons volume, EARN Festyals."I
II experience has gold in It as discerning folks agreed
Then therea quite little fortune slowed away some
And des i ont regardless of regular stated price,
In rough-done-up prize packages Of common-sonse
The people they can take it, or run round it, as they
but the best thing they'll hnd in it is some words like
unto thesei
Worm beetle, drought or tempest on afarmers land
But for Stst.eiass ruination trust mortgage gainst
them ALL
on my weddin' day my father touched me kindly on
And handed me the papers for an eighty-acre farm,
with the stock an tools an buildins for ndepen-
dent start,
Saying, Heres wedding present from my muscle
and my heart;
And except the admonltions you have taken from my
tongue,
And the reasonable lickin's that you had when you
was young,
And your food and clothes and schooin mot so much
For had number eatin' from someat scanty dish),
And the honest love you captured when you first sat
This is all have to give you-so expect no more from
me-"
People ID said couldn't marry the sweet gin tried
to court,
Till we smilinsly submitted minority report;
Then they laid their theories over with quickness
And said they knew we'd marry, but we never could
agree;
But we did not frame and hang up all the neshbors
had to say,
But ran our little heaven in our own peculiar way;
We started on quite jolly, wondrous full of health
And general understanding that the way was pretty
clear.
so we lived and toied and prospered; aud the little
family party
That from heaven to visit us were bright and
hale and hearty;
And to-day we might ha' been there had only just
have known
How to lay my road down solid, and let we'll enough
alone
But commenced a-kickng in the traces, 1 con-
feBs:
There was too much land that Joined me that didn't
yet possess.
When he gets landhungry, strange how ravenOus
'rvasnt long before wanted all the ground that
So bought another eighty (no forebodng any harm),
And for that aud some down-money put mortgage
Then bought Onother forty, hired some cash to fix
up new
And to buy a covered carriage-and of course the
mortgage grew.
that you should know
(Though I'm very far from saying that think it's al
But she went in hearty with me, working hard from
For we ipew that life was business now we had that
debt to pay
We worked through spring and winter, through sum
mer and through fall,
But that mortgage worked the hardest and the sead
est OF us all;
1t worked nights and Sundays; It worked each ho
1t settled down among us, and never went away
Whatever we kept from 1t seemed almost as bad as
theft; .
1t watched us every minute and it ruled right and
left.
The and blight were with us sometimes, and some
times not;
That dark-browed scowlins mortgage was forever OF
the spot.
The weevil and the cut-worm, they went as well a
came;
The mortgage stad forever eating hearty all the same
1t nailed every window stood guard at every door
more.
Till with failing crops and sickness we got stalled up
on the grade,
And there came dark day on us when the interea
wasn't paid;
And there came sharp foreclosure, and kind o. los
my hold,
And grew weary and discouraged, and the farm wa
cheaply sold.
The children left and scattered when they hardly "
| were grown;
My wife she pinned an persisted, an found myse
| alone.
What she died of "a mystery" and the doctor
| never knew
But knew she died of Rortgage-just as wen 3
| wanted to.
If to trace a hidden sorrow were within the doctor
| art,
They'd ha' found mortgage lying on that woman
| broken heart.
Two different kinds Of people the devil assAils
One is the man who conquers the other he who fail
But sti think the last kind the soonest to civ
| up,
And to hide their sorry faces behind the shameful cuI
| Like some old king or other, whose name I've SOM
| how lost,
They straightway tear their eyes out just when the
| need 'em most.
| When once had discovered that the debt could n
| pay,
tried TO liquidate it in a rather common way:
1 used to meet in private fellow-RnAncier,
And we would drink ourselves worth ten thousan
dollars clear
As easy way to prosper as ever has been found
But ones heap sight poorer when he gets back to n
ground.
OF couIse l ought to ha braced up an worked on I
| the same
amt a-tryin' to shirk out or cover up from blame
But still think often, 1t safely may be said,
| Are drfren to temptations In place Of being led;
And II that tyrant mortgage hadn't cracked its VIII
/ shouldn't have constituted the ruin that you see
For though I've never stolen or defauted, please
Yet, socially considered, I'm pretty middln' low.
am helpless an forsaken; am childless an alone
haven't single dollar that It's fair to call my own
My old age knows no comfort, my heart is scant
| cheer.
The children they run from me as soon as cor
The women shrink and tremble-their aims are fea
bestowed;
The dogs howl curses at me, and hunt me down t
My home is where night fnds me; my friends are +,
and cold:
little is there in this world for who's poor Al
oldl
But I'm wealthy in experience, all put up in good
vice,
To take or not to take It, with no difference in t
! price;
You may have it, an thrive it, or run round it,
you please,
But generally give IT wrapped up in some su
words as these:
Worm or beetle drought or tempest, turner's Ia
: may fall,
But for drsteiass ruiatOn, trus, a mortgage gal,