The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-03-08
J. A. nATDEN, Publisher.
RHODA FARRAND.

In the last of these Centennial days
Let me sing song TO IA womans praise:
How she proved herself in that time of strife,
worthy OF being patriots wife
A little woman she was-not young,
But ready of wit and quick of tongue;
One of the kind of which Solomon told;
Setting their price above rubjes and gold.
A memory brave clings around her name;
Twas Rhoda Farrand, and worthy of fame.
Though scarce she dreamed 'twould be woven
in rhymes,
In these-her grand-daughter's daughters
times.
Just out of the clamor of wars alarms,
Lay in tranquil quiet the Jersey farms;
And all OF the produce in barn and shed
By the lads ami girls was harvested
For the winds of winter with storm and chill
Swept bitterly over each field and hill
Her husband was with tine army, and she
Was left on the farm at Parsippany
When she heard the sound OF horses feet,
And Marshal DOty rode up the street;
He paused but a moment and handed down
A letter TOR Bhoda from MorrstOwn,
In her husbands hand-how she seized the
sheet;
The children came running with eager feet:
There were Nate and Betty, Hannah and Dan,
To list to the letter, and thus it ran,
After best greeting TO children and wife:
Heart OF his heart, and the life of his life, -
1 read from the paper, wrinkled and brown,
I'VE are here for the winter in Morristown,
And a sorry sight are our men to-day,
In tatters and rags with no sign of pay.
AS we marched TO camp, il man looked
back,
BY the dropping blood he could trace our
track;
For scarcely man has a decent shoe,
And there's not stocking the army through
SO send us stockings as quick as you can,
My company needs them, every man,
And every man is a neighbours lad;
Tell this TO their mothers; they need them
bad"
Then, if never before, beat Rhoda' heart,
Twas time to be doing "A womans part.
She turned to her daughters, Hannah and
Bet:
Girls, each on your needles a stocking set.
Get my cloak and hood as for you, son Dan,
Yoke up the steers just as quick us you can;
Put a chair IN the wagon, as you're alive,
,l,,w will sit and knit, while you go and drive
They started atonce on Whippany road,
She knitting away while he held the goad.
AT Whippany village she stopped to call
On the sisters Prudence and Mary Ball
She would not so in, she sat in her chair
And read to the girls her letter from there.
That was enough, for their brothers three
We're in Lieutenant Farrand's company.
Then on Rhoda went, stopping here and
TO rouse the neighbOrs from her old chair.
Still while she was riding her fingers flew,
And minute by minute the stocking grew.
Across the country, so withered and brown
They drove till they came to Hanover town
There, mellow ana rich lay the Smiths broad
lands
With them she took dinner and warmed hei
hands.
Next toward Hanover Neck Dan turned the
steers
Where her cousins, the Kitchels, had lived fol
With the Kitchels she supped, when home
ward turned
While above her the stars like lantern,
burned.
And she stepped from her chair, helped by hel
son,
With her first days work and her stocking
done.
On Rockaway River, so bright and clear,
The brown leaf skins in the fall of the year
Around through the hills it curves like ar
And holds in its clasp more than one bright
farm.
Through Rockaway valley next day drove
Dan;
Boy though he was, yet he worked like a man
His mother behind hin sat in her chair,
stu knitting, put Knitting another pair,
They reused the valley, then drove through
the gorge,
And stopped for a minute at Compton forge
Then on to BoontOn, and there they were fed
While the letter was passed around and read
t'Knit," said Rhoda TO all, las fast as you can
Send the stockings to me, and my son Dan
The first OF next week will drive me down,
And I'll take the stockings to Morristown.'
Then from BOonton home and at set of sun
She entered her house ruth her stockings done
On Thursday they Knit from the morn til
She and the girls, with all their might.
When the yarn gave out they carded anC
spun.
anu every udy more NlOChlnEs were done.
When the wool was gone, then they killed
sheep
A cosset-but nobody stopped TO weep
They pulled the fleece. and they Carded away
Ann spun and knitted from night until day
In all the country no woman could rest,
But they knitted on like people possessed"
And ParsOn COndit eNpOunded his views
On the Sabbath day unto empty pews,
Except for few stray lads who came
And sat in the gallery, to save the name.
On Monday morn at an early hour
The stockings came in perfect shower
a shower that lasted until the night;
Black, brown and gray ones and mixed blue
and white,
There were pairs one hundred and thirty
three,
Long ones, remember, up to the knee;
And the next day Rhoda carried them down
In the old oX-wagOn to MOrriStown.
hear like an echo the soldiers cheers
For Rhoda and Dan, the wagon and steers,
Growing wilder yet for the chief in command
While up at salute" to the brow flies eacl
hand
As Washington passes, desiring then
10 thank Mistress Farrand in name of hi
men.
But the words that her husbands lips let fall
81 knew you would do 1t" were best of ALL
And think in these Centennial days
That she should be given her need of praise
And while we are singing of AUD Lam
Sype,"
Her name with the others deserves to shine
-ElcdrlOr 4. Hunter, in the COn&nen