The Way It Came

I got to thinkin' of hor- both har parcnts dead and pone - And all her sisters married off, and none hut her and John A-livin' all alone there in that lonesome sort o' way, An him a blame old bachelor, confirmder every day ! I'd knowd 'em all from children, and their daddy from the time He settled in the neighborhood, and hadn't ary a dime Er dollar, whon he married, fer to start housekeepin' on !- So I got to thinkin' of her- both her parents dead and gone ! I got to thinkin' of her, and a wundern what she dono That all her sisters kep' a gittin' married one by one, And her without no chances - and the best ffirl of the pack - An old maid, with her hands, you might say, tied behlnd her back ! And motber, too, before she died, she ust to jes' take on, When none on 'em was loft, you know, but Eveline and John, And jes, doclare to goodness 'at the young men must be bline To sec what a wife they'd git if they got Eveline. I got to thinkin' of her; in my great affllction she Was sich a comfort to us, and so kind and neighborly - She'd come and leave her housework, fer to he'p out little Jane, And talk of herown mother, at she'd nevor see again- Mayby sometimes cry together- though, for the most part, she Would have the child so reconciled and happy like 'at we Feit lonesomer'n ever she'd put her bonnet on And say she'd railly haf to be a-gittin' back to John ! I got to thinkin' of her, as I say - and more and more I'd think of her dependence, and the burdens 'at she bore - Her parents both a-bein' dead, and all her sisters gone And married off, and her a-livin' there alone with John - You might say jes' a-toilin' and a-slavin' out her life For a man 'at hadn't pride enough to git hisself a wife - 'Less somcone married Eveline, and packed her off some day ! - So I got to thinkin of her- and it happened that away.