Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1910-08-21

Inc music OIL whose nQuld lip
Had been to us companionship,
And In our lonely life had grown
To have an almost human tone.
Snow Bound.
One of the pleasures of his boyhood was
to go fishing in this little brook with his
brother and Uncle Moses The house within
is treasury Of Winters belongings. At
every hand one discovers something that
was a part of the poets life. His chair
and desk Ills hair-cloth trunk the high
boy and the low boy" in which the
family linen was kept; the fireplace uten-
sils, the bed upon which he slept, the wheel
which his mother used in spinning the
linen which covers the bed and which is
also referred to in Snow Bound'-all these
and many other objects dear to those who
revere the memory Of Whittier are about
the house.
However, 1t is the great fireplace in the
great kitchen which receives the most at
tention from visitors. 1t was around this
very hearth that the family was grouped,
as slsetched in the great poem which con-
secrated the room. Here was piled:
The oaken log. green, huge and thick,
And on its top the stout back stick;
The knotty torestick laid apart,
And filled between with curious art,
The ragged brush; then lowering near,
We watched the first red blaze appear,
Heard the sharp crackle, caught the CLEAN
on whitewashed wall and sagging beam
Until the old rude-furnished room
Burst, flower-like, into bloom.
Here on these very bricks simmered the
mug Of cider and the apples sputtered in a
row" But l hope you will read Snow
Bound" where the poet gives a beautiful
picture OF his boyhood, portraying with
tender, loving words each member of the
fireside group.
I must not forget the door stone, an ir-
regular block of dark granite, us years
old, counting from the time 1t was quar-
ried by the poets grandfather. You re-
member how he speaks of it in ",rhe Bare
foot Boy"
o., for the festal dainties spread,
Like my bowl OF milk and bread
PEWTER spoon and bowl of wood
On the door stone, gray and rude
The door at which it lies faces south
west and Whittier has described the sun
set glow and the melodies of nature which
came to his ears from the woods and
streams nearby:
Ger me like q regal tent
Cloudy-ribbed. the sunset bent
Purple curtalned. fringed with gold.
Looped In may wiDd-swung fold;
While Tor music came the play
OF the pied frogs orchestra
In Snow Bound" Whittier has given
us series OF words-paintings which have
few equals. thought appreciated Them
but l did not until l re-read them after
my visit to his home. The ''clean-w winged
hearth in which THE fltful freight
paled and shone." is unchanged as are the
rooms upstairs where
Within our beds awhile we heard
The wind that round the gables roared
We heard the loosened clapboards tossed
The board-nais swapping I'm the frost
And on us, through the upholstered wall
Felt the light shifted snowflakes fall
In somewhat lonely place westward OF
the homestead is the site OF the little
building described in the verses OF I'm
School Days.
sun sits the school house by the road,
ragged beggar sleeping;
Around II still the sumachs grow,
And blackberry vines are creeping.
Within the masters desk Is seen
Deep SCARED by raps official
The warping floor, the battered seats,
The Jaok-knifes carved initial.
The charcoal frescoes on the wall;
It's doors worn sill, betraying
The feet that creeping slow TO school,
| Went storming out to playing.
The building was burned some years ago
and the place is now covered by a tangle
? OF blackberry vines, sumach and elderberry.
Between 1t and the home of Whittier is
the farm house in which lived the little
/. girl who was his school companion and
whose tender words:
I'm sorry l spelt the word:
l hate to go above you.
Beoause-the brown eyes lower fell
Because, you see, love you!
will live so long poetry exists. The
farm house is almost as old as the Whittier
homestead. and across the road is the
E tree under which the two children played
E together.
Q The gentlemen who accompanied our little
party to the boyhood home OF Whittier had
. a very pleasant surprise for us when we
returned to the homestead otter Visiting
the home OF Whittier's old playmate, Lydia
Aver. Under the shade OF the trees be-
. tween the house ana the brook. in sight OF
the we'll the old garden, the bride post
and the horse block, across the road from
the old barn to which the boys tunneled
through the snowdirft-
With merry din
a And aroused the prisoned brutes within
The old horse thrust his long head out
And grave with wonder gazed about,
The cock ais lusty greeting said,
e And forth his Speckled harem led.
. The oxen iashed their tails and hooked
And mild reproach OF hunger looked;
The horned patriarch OF the sheep.
Shook his sage head with gesture mute,
And emphasized with stamp OF foot.
We found delicious picnic dinner spread
and caterers ready TO serve us. After IN,
dinner we were Joined ~ Nj. samue