The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-10-02
A RURAL EPISODE.

Two honest husbandmen dwelt side by side
In farms adjoining. Grubbs and Stubs their
names.
Rough, homely names in sooth but-an they
And SIT those names had served them in
good stead
Grrlbbs had son Ezekiel, tall and staunch
As ever rustic who wore pants in boots,
And rose at four to milk his seven kline
And seek for egglets in the hennery.
Stubs had no son, a daughter only came
To bless her fathers home, to shed sunlight
About its rooms, and exc to do odd chores
'Twixt meal-times She was fair to look upon
As snowdrops blossom ng in early spring.
Her name was Mary Anna gentle name,
And gently borne by her Ezekiel saw
And loved her. whom to see and love were
The farms adjoined and were but kept apart
By one plain picket-fence of easy compass,
Through which the faithful dog of Farmer
Grubbs
Did oft meander in the eventime
To chase the hens of worthy Farmer Stubs.
Thus was Il feud begun between the twain;
But Mary Ann, and Young Ezekiel, too,
Were not party to parental strife.
Equal their fathers lots, content were they
To know that when some day the old men
hoped
The golden twig, the farms should be unite,
A geoodly estate for goodly pair
But one day came shadow 'er their paths.
A schemer from the town ntruded on
The peaceful confines of the Grub estate,
Looked here, dug there, and smiled and
Saying wiseacroly with shake of head:
There's oil upon this land; of that I'm sure!
Oil that is pent up in mighty store.
Dig, farmer, and warrant thee thoult find
Riches the like of which thou wot'st not of -
So he departed Then good Farmer Grubbs
Did hold his head aloft and elevate
His nose when neighbors passed, as who
should say:
81 shall be rich. There's oil on this my land,
And wealth immense shall speedily be mine"
n W Eynlxinl rs p1R n M Coil
Father, | fam would wed with Mary Ann"
He waxed full wroth, exclaiming in his
wrath:
"HOw nowl Thou who, when we have dug
Shalt be a man of riches, wilt thou wed
This beggar's brat, this pauper farmers
child?
Go to 1t shall not be-"
And SC the son
Went sorrowing to tell to Mary Ann
And break the match, explaining as he might
That he so rich must look above poor her.
Then there was digging on the Grubbs estate,
Digging in daytime: Dor ng in the n ight
For oil, rich oil, that was to make them rich.
For days and weeks and months they dug
and bore;
What came oft? Nothing, nothing, always
nothing.
Then came the city schemer and he looked
About the place, excaiming: Marvellous!
Behold the vein of oil that once lay here
Has van shed and has made its oily way
Beneath your fence to Farmer Stubbs' estate
His is the ol-well; yours the memory of it,
So saying he van shed, and Ezekiel wept.
That night he hied him unto Mary Ann,
And told her that his love had never ceased,
Besought her to take him back, and let no oil,
No obstacle so oleaginous
Disturb the dream, the golden dream, of love.
She said him nay, and Knocked h m.
So he went,
Kicking himself adown the dusty lane
Then Farmer Stubbs set merr ly to work,
And i'll g few weeks time struck oil right
rich.
A fortune rolled in and his wealth became
So vast that all around marveled thereat.
So Stubbs waXed wealthy, and so Mary Ann,
Her fathers heress grew accustomed to
Ezekiels loss and married very soon
a foreign noblemau with heavy lis.
Which Mary AIMS papa paid willingly.
Ezekiel is unwed while his papa
Doth ever moan and groan and tear his hair
Because in folly and unseemly wrath
He caused the MARI age to be broken off.
so read, and learn that we can never tell
Who that is down to-day may not be up
Tomorrow, and who down that now is up.
-Rdmbler,