Cape Cod Ballads, and Other Verse. Joseph Crosby Lincoln

Grandma's bonnet a marvel, grandpa's collar a show,

       Mother, a tiny toddler, with rings on her baby hands

       Painted—lest none should notice—in glittering, gilded bands.

       Aunts and uncles and cousins, a starchy and stiff array,

       Lovers and brides, then blooming—now so wrinkled and gray:

       Out through the misty glasses they gaze at me, sitting here

       Opening the quaint old cases with a smile that is half a tear.

       I will smile no more, little pictures, for heartless it was, in truth,

       To drag to the cruel daylight these ghosts of a vanished youth;

       Go back to your cedar chamber, your gowns and your lavender,

       And dream, 'mid their bygone graces, of the wonderful days that were.

THE BEST SPARE ROOM

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      I remember, when a youngster, all the happy hours I spent

       When to visit Uncle Hiram in the country oft I went;

       And the pleasant recollection still in memory has a charm

       Of my boyish romps and rambles round the dear old-fashioned farm.

       But at night all joyous fancies from my youthful bosom crept,

       For I knew they'd surely put me where the "comp'ny" always slept,

       And my spirit sank within me, as upon it fell the gloom

       And the vast and lonely grandeur of the best spare room.

       Ah, the weary waste of pillow where I laid my lonely head!

       Sinking, like a shipwrecked sailor, in a patchwork sea of bed,

       While the moonlight through the casement cast a grim and ghastly glare

       O'er the stiff and stately presence of each dismal haircloth chair;

       And it touched the mantel's splendor, where the wax fruit used to be,

       And the alabaster image Uncle Josh brought home from sea;

       While the breeze that shook the curtains spread a musty, faint perfume

       And a subtle scent of camphor through the best spare room.

       Round the walls were hung the pictures of the dear ones passed away,

       "Uncle Si and A'nt Lurany," taken on their wedding day;

       Cousin Ruth, who died at twenty, in the corner had a place

       Near the wreath from Eben's coffin, dipped in wax and in a case;

       Grandpa Wilkins, done in color by some artist of the town,

       Ears askew and somewhat cross-eyed, but with fixed and awful frown,

       Seeming somehow to be waiting to enjoy the dreadful doom

       Of the frightened little sleeper in the best spare room.

       Every rustle of the corn-husks in the mattress underneath

       Was to me a ghostly whisper muttered through a phantom's teeth,

       And the mice behind the wainscot, as they scampered round about,

       Filled my soul with speechless horror when I'd put the candle out.

       So I'm deeply sympathetic when some story I have read

       Of a victim buried living by his friends who thought him dead;

       And I think I know his feelings in the cold and silent tomb,

       For I've slept at Uncle Hiram's in the best spare room.

THE OLD CARRYALL

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      It's alone in the dark of the old wagon-shed,

       Where the spider-webs swing from the beams overhead,

       And the sun, siftin' in through the dirt and the mold

       Of the winder's dim pane, specks it over with gold.

       Its curtains are tattered, its cushions are worn,

       It's a kind of a ghost of a carriage, forlorn,

       And the dust from the roof settles down like a pall

       On the sorrowin' shape of the old carryall.

       It was built long ago, when the world seemed ter be

       A heaven, jest made up for Mary and me,

       And my mind wanders back to that first happy ride

       When she sat beside me—my beauty and bride.

       Ah, them were the days when the village was new

       And folks took time to live, as God meant 'em ter do;

       And there's many a huskin' and quiltin' and ball

       That we drove to and back in the old carryall.

       And here in the paint are the marks of the feet

       Where a little form climbed ter the high-fashioned seat,

       And soft baby fingers them curtains have swung,

       And a curly head's nestled the cushions among;

       And then come the gloom of that black, bitter day

       When "Thy will be done" looked so wicked ter say

       As we drove to the grave, while the rain seemed to fall

       Like the tears of the sky on the old carryall.

       And so it has served us through sunshine and cloud,

       Through fun'rals and weddin's, from bride-wreath ter shroud;

       It's old and it's rusty, it's shaky and lame,

       But I love every j'int of its rickety frame.

       And it's restin' at last, for its race has been run,

       It's lived out its life and its work has been done,

       And I hope, in my soul, at the last trumpet call

       I'll have done mine as well as the old carryall.