St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1882-09-16

i" The poultry and pigs have vanished, all
Swept out by the sherif's SALE
Back to the door-yard well he goes
For parting look, farewell drink.
How drippingy that bucket rose
And poised for him on the brink
in the summers gone and FLASHED his feet -,
When the men came in from the harvest heat!
How blessedly cool the draught, how sweet,
It's misery now to think.
What scenes of Pc ceful, prosperous life
Once filled the yard, so desolate now!
When he often would say to his pleased, proud
wife,
That the farm appeared, somehow,
More thrifty and CHEEKY than other mems,
With its cattle in pasture and swine in pens,
Bleating Of lambs and cackle of hens,
And well-stored crib and NOW.
The early years Of their proud success 9; ss;s
Are past, with the toll that was happiness
And the strife that was sorrow and shame
She came to him hopeful and strong and fa1r-
Now who is the sad wrath sitting there, re-, ,a,.
With her burden of grief and her OLD thin halr
Bowed over her feeble frame?
"Do you remember? This well,' he said,
Was sunk that summer when Jane was
born
She used to stand in the old house-shed
And blow the dinner-horn
In after years-or climb rail
OF the door-yard fence for a CHEEKY hail.
Then run to the curb for brimming pail,
When came up from the corn.
Why think of her now? against whose name,
His lips and heart long since were sealed;
Whose memory in their lives became
A sorrow that never has healed.
Her step is on the creaking stair,
Her girlsh image is everywhere!
He hears her laughter, he sees her hair
Blow back in the wind, as she comes to bear
His luncheon to the field.
-s'Twas terrible wrong"' The old wife
spoke,
swaying her gaunt frame to and fro.
TIL cav nOwf' Her strained voice broke
Into wall Of woe.
cit ha,lnts me awake, it haunts me asleepI
And silence has been so hard to keep
So long!-But there is a grief too deep
For ever man to know!
"A quaver of anguish shook his tone,
His look was pierced with keen remOrse;
'' The blame, suppose, was all my own;
And have no hearl, of course! :,
Great Heaven! nor any grief to hide"
Lifting his gloomy hat aside,
He looked up, hagg ird and holloW-eyed,
Like one whose burning soul had dried
His tears at their very source
"No. no! don't mean that" she wept,
1--WE felt you suffering many day,
And often at night when you thought slept,
And whsn l have heard you pray,
Until it seemed that my heart would burst.
claimed you were right and did my worst
To force her to obey.
."For the dream Of our lives had been to make
Our Jane lady fit for a lord;
Our schemes were all for our children's sake.
And it seemed cruel reward
To see her with careless scorn refuse
For all the arguments we could use
The man you most approved. aud choose
The one you most abhorred.
=" But when she had chosen and all was done,
You needn't have been SO hard and stern;
We might have forgiven the poor dear one,
And welcomed her return.
You never could know what she was to me,
You never will know how yearn to see
U auAjn-h0w hOmpgieIylV
yearn, and yearn and yearn!
as She chose for herself, and who can tell? hi
She braved your will, it true, and yet
She may, for all that, have chosen we'll.
And how can we forget?
We chose for Alice, and unawares
Rushed with her into rich mans snares,
Who tangled us up in his loose affairs,
And dragged us down with debt"
'"weIl, wellw-with heavy sigh-"Let's go!
/ haven't been always wise. All. Jane!
Some things miant not be done just so, t@t5
If they were to do again.
But Alice is dead and the farm is gone; ,.f
Our hopes. and all that we built them on,
Friends, wealth. are scattered hther and yon,
And only ourselves remain.
-.sThese boughs will blossom and fruits will
The same! When changed the orchard
And fenced it all with good stone wall,
And planned the garden plot,
And built the arbor and planted trees,
And made a home for our pride and ease,
We little thought these were oil to please
Strangers who knew us not!
Others will reap where we have sown;
Rut others never can understand
What watchful care these fields have known,
Or how loved the land.
Here maids will marry and babes be born,
The sun will shine on the wheat and corn,
Crops be gathered ana sheep De shorn'
But by stranger hand.
,"Come. wife!" With bitterest vain regret,
Remembering all good things that were,
The old man yet can half forget
His woes, in pity OF her.
She entered, young man happy BRIDE.
she crowned his home with hope and pride,
And now goes forth by an old mans side,
A weary wauderer.
With slow. disconsolate. broken talk.
They look their last and pass the gate;
mile, and it 8 growing hlte.
She bears parcel, he lifts pack,
,Eut what do they sse there, up the track.
Against the sunset, looming black?
mis- stranga! tn wagon is coming back,
With its melancholy freight.
And what is the driver shrieking out?
NOW Heaven, for moment, keep them
~Turn aboufl turn about!' they hear him
shout,
AS he fiourishes whip and rein :,
~You've home and good friend yer, you
a coach il Following close behind:
4 face-a yeica-Oh, Heaven be kind!
oh. Iips that trennbie AMI tears that blindI
Oh. breaking hearts, IT'S JANE!
II T. Troiobridge. In Our Continent.