John Reed

Tnere's a mist on the meadow below ; tüe herrlngf rogs cliirp and cry ; U's chili when the mm in down, and the sod is not The vorld is' a loncly place, it secms, aud I don't know why. I sec, aR I lean on the fence, how wearily trndges Dan; With the fcel of the Spring in his boncs, lik e a wcak and eldcrly man ; l'vc had it many a tiiuo, bul wc uniBt vork whcu wc eau. Day after flay to toil, and ever from Bun t sim, Thouííh xip to tho MHOQ'a front, and nolhing be left undo&e, Is onding at twelve likc a clock, and beginning agaiu at one. The froffp make a snrrowful uoise, and vet it's the time they mate : Thores eomething comes with the Spring, a lightneas or else i weitfht ; There's Bomething comes with the Spring, and it Bcems to me it's fate. It'B the hankeriog after a Ufe that you nevcr Lave leiircoA to kxkow; It's the discontent wilh a lifc that is always thus and po; It's the wondeiing what we are, and whcre we are going to go. My lifc is lucky enough, I fancy, to moet nieu's eyee, For the more a faniily grows, the oftener eonic onc dies, And it's now run on eo long, it couldn't bc otherwise. And Sister Jane and myself, we have Iearnecï to claim and yield ; She rules in the house at will, and I in the barn and field, Go, nigli upon thirty ycars !- as if writtcn and eigued and aealed. I couldn't ehange if I would ; I've lost the how and j the wheii ; Onc dn y my time will be up, and Jane be the mietresa then, For single woeien are tough and live down the single men. She kopt me so to herseir shc was always the strongcr hand, And ]uy lot pliowod well enough, when I lookcd j arouud in the land ; lïnL l'm tircd and sore at heart, anti I don't quite onderstand. I wonder how it had been if IM laken what others need, The plague, they eay, of a wife, the care of a younger breed? If Edith IMeasanton now wero with me ith Reed ? Suppose that a Ron well grown were therc in the j place of Dan, And 1 lelt ruygelf in hini, as I was wheu my work began '} I sho'.ild fcel no older, surc, and certaiuly more ? man A claughter, lcsidcf in the house ; nay, let thcre be two or threc ! We oever can ovcnlo the luek that eau nevcr be, And wh;tt has come to the most might alBO have come to me. I've thought, when a ueihbor's wife or bis ehild wae earried away, That to have no loss was a gaiu ; but now, I can baxdl; say ; lic seems to possess theni still, under the ridges of claj'. And sbare and eharc in a lifc is, eomeliow, a different thiug froin property held by deed, and the riehca that oft take wing ; feel so close in the breast !- I think it must bc the Spring. Fm drying up like a brook when the woods have been cleared around ; You're sure it must always run. yon are used to the si;ht and pcmnd, lint it shriiiltH UU there's ouly left a stoiiy rut in the grotind. There's nolliing to do but tako the tlays as they come and go, Andnotto worry with thoughta that nobody likes ' to Bhow, Tor people so seldonx talk of the thingy thcy want to know. Thero's times when the way is plain, and everything ncarly right, And theu, of a sudden, yon staud like a man with a clouded sight; A bush secnis of ten a beast, in the dusk of the falling uight. Imust move; my jointa aro stiff; the wcathcr la I brecding rain, Am! Dan iu hurrying on with lus plov-tcam up the lane. go to tho village store ; I'd rather not talk with Jane.