The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1883-08-01

Boy.
| sing the song of the apple.
The round and rosy apple.
The soft and mellow apple
Up in the trees.
Kissed by the ices,
Swung in the breeze
In go-as-yOu please
Rhymes such as these
Are written with ease,
Your pencil you seize
Whoa!
l was singing the sons of the apple.
| see the pug-nosed, bad. small boy
Hug himself iu his wild. wild Joy,
AS be passes To school by the apple trees
And, looking up, the green fruit sees,
And he smiles as he cons his "A. B c."
And quietly says Il will lay for thee T.
Down in the meadow is heard the ring
Of the mowers scythe with its cling,
cling, cling,
Aud the small boy glances out of the
door
OF the village school while the teachers
snore
Betukens his afternoon 5 nap.
When up from the meadow a cry of pain
Tells Ut something cut BESIDE the grain
Yes, even SO, 4 the mower mOws
\ slice from of his shlimp-pink toes,
And he drops his scythe and ye)ls his
woes,
While Ia The school the wonder grows
That a man can yell SO loud and live
After utJering such awful explosives
As 'jimmenty crickets! !" and ''b'gosh -
Aud the small boy keeps on watching.
The masters ruler comes down with a
boom,
The small boy glides from out the room.
La the school yard grass, cool aud sweet,
He bathes his dusty, fat, bare feet,
Then over the fence anu down the lane,
The willful lad is free again,
Free as the birds, free as the breeze.
But his mind does not dwell on thoughts
Of these
Hen bent on them apples on the trees"
[ sing the song of the apple.
The bullety, bright green apple
kil"em-On-the-spOt
The tie-'em-in-a knot,
Hard, green. cholera apples.
Down in the orchard is heard a wall
And thereby hangs this mournful tale.
[ sec him climbing the apple tree
He fills his pockets with Joyous glee,
An he packs away the hard green fruit,
Unminiful the watchful farmers boot,
Fill a shout Here bull here bull!' is
heard.
And the small boy, awfully skeered.
scared, >kurd.
Il must have a rhyme).
Slides Il ,wn the tree and makes for the
IT, zee.
But tn ul dog bars the passage there
And tn, lad, accepting his only chance,
Leaps the fence. minus u part Of his
clDtnas
But he has the apples.
| stag the song of the apple,
The knot'y, vlnegary apple,
Sour aS siu.
Thick, tough skin.
Sallow without aud sickly within,
Crunched by the boy with the powerful
chin,
Taken in with his broad expanSe of grin,
This sudden, iron clad apple.
And what of the boy?
Down in the meadow by the stream,
He has been down for y small day-dream;
A dream of farmers, and dog, and boot.
The while he crunches the green, green
fruit;
Aud he fills him up with several score
Of hard, green apples, then signs for
more
Then he voes home.
| hear the loud notes Of an echoing wall
of = small, small boy in bed,
1t raises the shingles from off the roof.
as he wishes that he we're dead
And the apples are there. and their
presence is known.
AS the primeval cause of that far-reach-
ing grcan,
And the small boy grows limp, and the
small hos grows pale,
And the small boy lies languid and can't
even vail;
And he VOWS a big vow that he'll eat no
more fruit,
And beware of the man. and the dog,
and the boot;
Hut the ve-y next day, f,rgetting all
pain,
He's after the very same apples az tir.
LENVOI.
"Langh while ". Iuay foe tie day will
com.
When laughter dies on lips that are
dumb'
Laugh at the apples. and laugh at the
boy,
And laugh at his cramps with a wild,
fierce joy
Laugh while We may, yet Iaugh only AT
fun.
And %reioice that 'he song Of the apple is
done.
r. n. J.
When a woman wants to get rid of