THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 
 ! 
 
 8. F. McLeAN. BOOKSELLER.
 
 THE SUNFLOWER,
 
 THE 
 
 OR, 
 
 BT ff, ?&STHBH 
 
 "The heart that has truly loved never forgets, 
 
 But as truly loves on to the close. 
 As the sunflower turns on her god when he sets, 
 
 The same look which she did when he rose." 
 
 MOOKE. 
 
 PLANO, ILLINOIS. 
 
 PRINTED AT TIIK HKI:AI.I> STKAM BOOK AND JOB OKFK K. 
 1881.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1881, by 
 
 J. FLETCHER HOLLISTEB, 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at 
 Washington.
 
 J*7 
 
 Tins work is affectionately dedicated: 
 
 1st. To his Dear Wife. Sharley Emeline, the faithful friend 
 and sharer of both his -orio\v> and his joys. 
 
 3d. To his friends with the good regards that the gift implies. 
 
 3d. To all those who desire to read it with a wish for their 
 pleasure, and perchance, profit. 
 
 4th. To his enemies, if then- are such. 
 
 5th. And lastly, To those "Who for lack of sense, turn critics 
 in their own deft use." (Pope). As he always will, "His de 
 fects to know, make use of every friend and every foe." 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 762995
 
 "Paint me us I am." Cromwell. 
 
 IN publishing a book great or small, it is customary to insert 
 a preface setting forth the scope and design of the work. This 
 work assumes very little of scope, and less of design. As was 
 said by a Prince of Poets, (Burns) : 
 
 "Some rhyme a neebor's name to lash; 
 Some rhyme (vain tho't) for needfu 1 cash ; 
 Some rhyme to catch the country clash, 
 And raise a din; 
 For me, an aim I never fash : 
 
 I rhyme for fun." 
 Therefore more need not be said thereon. 
 
 The following pieces, whatever their merit if any were 
 written as occasional and mere wayside trifles, as circumstance or 
 incident gave occasion: yet upon reflection they, or gome of them, 
 seem to point a moral; some to express a sentiment; some to 
 indulge a whimsey, and some even do "give aid and comfort" to 
 honor and patriotism : ever keeping in view the true dignity and 
 higher welfare of humanity. The work, miscellaneous as~it is, 
 imparts the thought, sentiment and feeling of its author, express 
 ed in his own language ; and is published to please himself, and 
 also his friends who have often importuned him with : "Why don't 
 you get your poems published.-' 1 
 
 THE AUTHOR.
 
 ..,: 
 
 Page 
 
 My Childhood's Home 
 
 1 
 
 Fame 
 
 10 
 
 True Happiness 
 
 11 
 
 Envy 
 
 12 
 
 Summer Shower .... 
 
 14 
 
 Lines on Hearing a Watch, &c. 
 
 15 
 
 Fleeting Summer 
 
 18 
 
 Supplement to Fleeting Summer 
 
 19 
 
 Lines 
 
 20 
 
 Liberty Song 
 
 *> 
 
 Life 
 
 .... 23 
 
 To the Tippler 
 
 
 Temperance Jubilee 
 
 il 
 
 My Wife 
 
 26 
 
 Fashionables 
 
 27 
 
 
 
 Equality 
 
 28 
 
 Ethics of Trade 
 
 29 
 
 Soliloquy 
 
 30 
 
 Obedience 
 
 30
 
 x INDEX. 
 
 
 The Forsaken's Lament 
 
 31 
 
 Faith, Hope, Love .... 
 
 34 
 
 The Graves 
 
 35 
 
 The Ox 
 
 36 
 
 Happy Fire Side 
 
 36 
 
 A Lament .... 
 
 37 
 
 Spring Morning .... .... 
 
 38 
 
 Freedom's Star 
 
 40 
 
 A Chapter on Bickerings 
 
 41 
 
 Varieties .... 
 
 U 
 
 The Dandy 
 
 43 
 
 The Kindly 
 
 44 
 
 Dedication of Album 
 
 45 
 
 Prairie Girl 
 
 46 
 
 Folly and Fun 
 
 47 
 
 Elegy on the Death of Charles Madison Carver 
 
 48 
 
 Youth 
 
 52 
 
 The Neglected Boy ... 
 
 52 
 
 Country vs. City; Nature vs. Art 
 
 53 
 
 To a Brother Rhymer, O. Fuller 
 
 55 
 
 Bloomers .... .... 
 
 61 
 
 Our Tobacco Chewing Parson 
 
 63 
 
 Biped Tobacco Worms 
 
 64 
 
 Priestly Religion .... .... 
 
 66 
 
 Wlio is the Murdered Wife 
 
 66 
 
 The Old Wife And the New 
 
 68 
 
 The Women 
 
 69
 
 INDEX. 
 
 The Guardian (seven) 
 
 To Ella 
 This Age 
 
 The Sleepy Baby 
 
 The Supreme 
 
 Be True to Thyself 
 
 Come to the Concert 
 
 Welcome to Our Returning Soldiers 
 
 Epic of Madam Grimdy 
 
 K veiling Hymn 
 
 The Spirit of Man Never Grows Old 
 
 Our Christinas Dinner 
 
 A Thought 
 
 Guardians 
 
 Couplet 
 
 My Mountain Home 
 
 A Kiddle . .. 
 
 Chewing Gum 
 
 Money .... 
 
 Rich 
 
 l)\ inu r Body's Adieu to Its Departing Spirit 
 
 70 
 72 
 73 
 75 
 76 
 78 
 79 
 82 
 84 
 104 
 IOC 
 108 
 112 
 112 
 114 
 118 
 116 
 117 
 119 
 123 
 124
 
 MY CHILDHOOD'S HOME. 
 
 Sweet Home of my Childhood dear land of my birth! 
 
 Thy beauties in dream I survey, 
 And revel in pictures that glow round that hearth 
 
 Where rocked in the cradle I lay; 
 No spot so enchanting upon the green earth, 
 
 So richly in memory hung, 
 As that where my tongue in its juvenile mirth, 
 
 Its first prattling melodies sung. 
 
 There stood my native wood-built cot,* 
 And suited to the charming spot, 
 
 Remote from city strife ; 
 Without, were thrift and order spread, 
 Within, domestic comforts shed 
 
 Their rustic beams o'er life. 
 
 In front and just across the way, 
 
 A time-browned ''Still"'!' did antic play 
 
 Its pranks with old and young: 
 Three drams or more a day, at least, 
 Were modish then; thus even the Priest 
 
 Inspired his godly tongue. 
 
 * See Note 1. f See Note >.
 
 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 It stood unblushing on a brink;* 
 
 Fit place, as mortals crazed with drink 
 
 Soon found the ditch below. 
 I saw not then the ruin dire, 
 The crispings of its liquid fire, 
 
 Its sure entail of woe ! 
 
 My father's patient toil and skill 
 Built the old fashioned cider-mill -f 
 
 With circled trough and wheel; 
 The massive wheel its circuits rolled 
 In ponderous rounds, till Winter's cold 
 
 The laggard ' -cheese" congeal. 
 
 "66'' 
 
 Came there the plodding farmers round, 
 "In turn" to occupy the ground, 
 
 "For so the order stood 
 With clumsy carts, some iron stayed, 
 And some more clumsy still, were made 
 
 Exclusively of wood. 
 
 These laden deep and oxen drawn, 
 
 To evening's shade from morning's dawn, 
 
 Each creaking 'neath its load 
 Of apples, straw, and barrels void, 
 In prior years filled and enjoyed, 
 
 Came trundling 'long the road. 
 
 The apples in the "bed" were stored, 
 And piecemeal in the wheeltrack poured; 
 
 "Old Dobbin" cherup told, 
 Tugged, with his antique -'tackling" prest, 
 Against the belt across his breast, 
 
 And round the engine rolled. 
 
 * Of a spring-run near the house. f See Note 3.
 
 MY CHILDHOOD'S HOME. 
 
 Freebooter like, I ran the ground, 
 
 And culled and munched the best 1 found, 
 
 Or plied the magic '-straw * 
 To barrel, tub, and rill, and press; 
 And sipped and swigged till sore distress 
 
 Would seize my burdened maw. 
 
 'Twas tinder to my childish pride, 
 When seniors lifted me to ride 
 
 Astride the sweeping shaft; 
 The scene my infant bosom fired, 
 Not more of glory I desired, 
 
 And deep the goblet quaffed. 
 
 (An Autocrat uii<rht seize the helm 
 Of State, the Traverse his realm, 
 
 The Sun itself his throne; 
 And Empires tremble at his nod, 
 Own him a Caesar or a god, 
 
 'Twas nothing to my own! 
 
 Yes; I was greater, happier far, 
 Than Sultan, President, or Czar; 
 
 I Jived! and life was bliss. 
 My guileless soul, worth millions more 
 Than power, or fame, or uolden store, 
 
 Had never gone amiss.) 
 
 But, ah! J sometimes lost my poise, 
 And from that pinnacle of joys 
 
 Fell tumbling headlong down, 
 Like sundry children older grown, 
 [Some call them kin<jx] flying their throne, 
 
 Their kingdom, and their crown. 
 
 * See Note 4.
 
 THE SUNFLO\V !:!;. 
 
 This closed the scene a tragic close! 
 With bruises and a bleeding nose, 
 
 Wrought by the sad mishap; 
 Crest fallen "Johnny" sobbing went 
 To give his bursting bosom vent 
 
 In "mother's" soothing lap. 
 
 Dear mother! blessings be thy share, 
 For watching, toiling, ceaseless care! 
 
 And happy rest thy soul ! 
 Thy chidings are as vivid now, 
 Though time has chiseled deep my brow, 
 
 As when I truant stole 
 
 To paddle in the gutter stream. 
 Ah! life was then a flowery dream, 
 
 Turmoil and grief unknown. 
 I knew not then misfortune's smart, 
 Which since has blighted head and heart, 
 
 And left them sere and lone. 
 
 The "gutter" was my darling rill, 
 Sprung from adjacent granite hill 
 
 In leaping, laughing chase. 
 How oft its current clear I riled 
 With fickle sands and pebbles piled, 
 
 To head its wonted chase! 
 
 Lone chestnuts, shagbarks, oaks and elms, 
 Grand Sachems of their forest realms, 
 
 Spared by the axman's arm, 
 For fruit, or ornament, or shade, 
 As fancy or the senses swayed, 
 
 Stood waving o'er the farm.
 
 MY CHILDHOOD'S HOME. 
 
 Soft maples, natives of the swales, 
 As if to woo the kissing gales, 
 
 Upturn their silvery leaves; 
 Among their mossy branches gray, 
 The chittering squirrels antics play, 
 
 The robin her palace weaves. 
 
 That one across the way, in Spring 
 Crowned with its scarlet blossoming, 
 
 Gay orchestra for birds, 
 Pavilion charmingly attuned, 
 Where heart with kindred heart communed 
 
 In love's untutored words. 
 
 Not barren trees that idly stood, 
 Stern relics of primeval wood, 
 
 Dotting the manor o'er; 
 But fruits of every taste and hue, 
 Which on the trees and brambles grew, 
 
 The queen attraction bore. 
 
 There grew the apple and the pear, 
 The currant, cherry, plum, were there. 
 
 For more would relish call ? 
 There, native grapes in blue and white, 
 Some climbing to the elm tree's height, 
 
 Some creeping on the wall. 
 
 Would more? there hung the luscious peach, 
 Inviting in the finger's re:ich. 
 
 To crown the tempting list. 
 What epicure would ever seek 
 More than devour its blushing cheek, 
 
 By Beauty's goddess kissed?
 
 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 Those fruits, my father planted them, 
 And careful nursed each fragile stem 
 
 That bent beneath the storms. 
 He sowed the grass-plot by the door, 
 And set the picket fence before, 
 
 To ward intruding forms. 
 
 With playthings gathered on the "stair,"* 
 I whittledsticks and fingers there, 
 
 In tune with mother's wheel ;"f 
 Or marked the glowing stithy fire, 
 Where Vulcan-like, iny artful sire 
 
 New formed the candent steel. 
 
 Alert, when sisters milking went;| 
 
 Or o'er their scythes when brothers bent, 
 
 Or stowed the smothering mow, 
 I capered, tumbled, shouted meet, 
 Went berrying, or cooled my feet 
 
 In furrows 'hind the plow. 
 
 Thus passes childhood's giddy hour, 
 Woven of shadow, sheen and shower : 
 
 Like puss or poodle pet; 
 A cumbrance if sweet love has not 
 Its biding place in Home's dear spot, 
 
 And Hope's bright Altar set. 
 
 Now came the motley district schools, 
 Resort for congregating fools. 
 
 Close by the '-Old Red Church," 
 Where Pedngogues for want of sense, 
 Assumed dictation to dispense 
 
 Their ignorance and birch. || 
 
 * See Note 5. f See Note 6. J See Note 7. 1 See Note 8.
 
 HY CHILDHOOD'S IK >.}!/;. 
 
 There every stage of youthful age 
 Gluumied o'er some musty, tattered page, 
 
 As tardy sessions passed, 
 Or restless urchins sly at play, 
 The irksome hours whiled away, 
 
 And glad to see the last, 
 
 When surging forces chained and pent, 
 And passions may their tumult vent 
 
 In rowdy, rampant spree. 
 "Dismissed!" And how in clamor scream! 
 Their postering life's upheaving steam 
 
 Exploded instantly! 
 
 In Summer, to the romping shade; 
 In Winter to the icy glade, 
 
 They helter skelter sped; 
 To scuffle off activity, 
 Or coast some bold declivity, 
 
 By dashing ][<rt<- led. 
 
 Adown he drives ashies and shakes 
 Locks whizzing in the gale he makes 
 
 Hat frighted flies his crown 
 His quivering sled half leaping flies, 
 Yet friendly star the nadder plies 
 ' And lights him safely down. 
 
 Others rush down the treacherous track 
 HreN over liend on face or hack. 
 
 .leered liy the shouting crowd 
 To siiKish their noddles in the crust, 
 Or smother in the whirling dust. 
 
 The drift their shivering: shroud.
 
 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 More wary, others bring their sleds 
 To gentler slopes as caution bids, 
 
 And fortune on their side ; 
 While wee ones shun the steeper glare 
 And seek the safer levels, where 
 
 Their feet may gaily slide. 
 
 Those mossy walls* outreaching piles 
 Of granite winrows running miles, 
 
 Cutting the lands with gray; 
 Enduring hints of fore-sires' toils, 
 Defying time's and sea-son's spoils 
 
 Bound garden, field and way. 
 
 That blest "Old Garden"f hallowed soil! 
 Where grandsire in his youth did toil 
 
 And won an honest crust; 
 Upon those relics close beside 
 Stood shelter where he lived and died 
 
 Full ripe in years and trust. 
 
 Those mossy bounds of rustic yore ; 
 That ruined celL^ were old before 
 
 I drew my natal breath, 
 And head and hand that built them there 
 By lifelong labor, skill and care, 
 
 Lay still and cold in death. 
 
 The { 'hackmatack"|| he planted near, 
 Memento of affection dear, 
 
 And relrc of his pains. 
 Still waves its mystic triumph there, 
 Uplooking to that country where 
 
 Perennial Summer reigns. 
 
 * See Note 9. f See Note 10. J See Note 11. ]| See Note 12.
 
 MY CHILDHOOD'S HOME. 
 
 I love the spot where first my life 
 Was ushered on this scene of strife, 
 
 To swell the active throng; 
 I love thy fields of flocks and herds, 
 I love thy sky where songster birds 
 
 Their worship pour in song. 
 
 I love thy trees and rocks and rills; 
 Thy blooming vales and rugged hills 
 
 In graceful contrast stand; 
 I love thy lofty mountain steeps, 
 Where nature in fantastic heaps, 
 
 Piled up her pristine sand. 
 
 I love thy springs which gush and gleam 
 Their laughing tribute to the stream 
 
 That ripples through the dell; 
 Eager my thirsty lips partook 
 From them, or from the purling brook, 
 
 Or from the in-door well. 
 
 I love the cot where comfort dwelt, 
 There parents dear devoted knelt 
 
 Communing with their God; 
 There honored they the King of Kings, 
 And 'neath the shadow of His wings, 
 
 The paths of meekness trod. 
 
 With kindly parent care caressed, 
 And just half-dozen Summers blest, 
 
 I left that native soil.* 
 Bound west, the youngest of the clan 
 That watched my footsteps up to man, 
 
 And taught me how to toil. 
 
 * Se Note 13.
 
 10 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 But ah! how changed life's drama now! 
 Time's plowed his furrows 'cross my brow, 
 
 Decay pervades my frame; 
 My sun of youth approaches night, 
 And life's unsettled, lambent light, 
 
 Burns with a feeble flame. 
 
 Though exiled on this western plain,* 
 Fond recollection wakes the strain, 
 
 Enchantment of the past: 
 0, halcyon hour of childhood's glee! 
 Fond memory will hallow thee 
 
 So long as memory last. 
 
 LITTLE ROCK, Kendall County, Ills., 1844. 
 
 FAME. 
 
 What is Fame? A bubble bright, 
 Fancy lit in others' breath, 
 
 Flinging jack -o lantern light, 
 Lures ambition on to death. 
 
 Why will silly mortals toil 
 
 Half distracted thus for show? 
 
 Can Fame proffer for their moil 
 Haifa recompense below! 
 
 * See Note 14.
 
 TRUE HAPPINESS. 11 
 
 Empty titles! crowns of state! 
 Handles of consuming care 
 
 Where's your final vaunt, ye ureat? 
 Taunting echo answers, "Where!" 
 
 TRUE HAPPINESS. 
 
 A question long in hot dispute 
 
 Enigma none could guess 
 "Where is it?" as in k en pursuit 
 
 Was sought TRUE HAPPINESS. 
 
 I asked the monarch on his throne, 
 
 If royalty was bliss'/ 
 "Nay. nay." said he in anxious tone, 
 
 "Here's no True Happiness!" 
 
 I asked the warrior in the field, 
 
 In gory glory's dress: 
 What does your pomp and carnage yield ? 
 
 "Ah no True Happin 
 
 I sought the miser in his cell, 
 
 [{(counting his increa-r ; 
 His woful litok the tale did tell, 
 He'd no True Happiness. 
 
 I asked the thoughtless, vain and gay 
 
 Their idle answer tins: 
 u We eat and drink and rise to play." 
 
 This your True Happiness !
 
 1 2 THE S UNFL WER. 
 
 I sought the peasant in his cot 
 Sure there no grief cou'd press : 
 
 "I've peace and plenty, but have not 
 Yet found True Happiness!" 
 
 I asked the saint who long had trod 
 
 In Bible holiness? 
 "Not now, not here in heaven and God 
 
 I hope True Happiness." 
 
 I turned to him who tills the ground 
 Of Wisdom, Truth and Love? 
 
 "These virtues my delightful bound, 
 And conscience to approve, 
 
 My cup," said he, "a brimming joy 
 
 Of purity and peace; 
 They all my time and thought employ, 
 
 And win True Happiness. 
 
 These Triune Graces. hail their sway ! 
 
 Undying Savior given 
 To light and smooth life's checkered way, 
 
 And earth transform to heaven!" 
 
 ENVY. 
 
 Oh! horrid Envy! execrable thing! 
 A hell-born child, offspring legitimate ! 
 Wrinkled and haggard and grown gray with near 
 Six thousand years of unrelenting greed !
 
 ENV7. 13 
 
 Tireless and sateless thus she marches on, 
 Flinging her blight o'er all the social plan, 
 'Whelming the loveliest tokens of our race 
 
 In common ruin ! 
 
 Envy! that hateful name, exceeding vile! 
 The chief of all the diabolic train 
 Of hellish fiends within the range of thought; 
 That harrows nature's indignations up 
 
 To tempest wild ! 
 
 Ah who can look fell Envy in the face, 
 Or taste the venom of her aspen tongue. 
 
 And not the loser be ! 
 For when she takes j> >-><'->ion of a heart, 
 She quick pursues the victim of her ire, 
 With unrelenting zeal and hate and wrath 
 
 And rage unmitigated! 
 She stalks abroad a most flagitions li 
 Whose eyes of vengeance dire and whose knit brow 
 Bespeak malignity that reigns within; 
 Whose venoined tongue a fatal dagger is; 
 Whose shriveled lips but hide a catacomb 
 Where lie ingulphed her wretched victims low; 
 Wh' se nostrils fume with vapors from the pit 
 Whence she proceeded, and whence all our woes 
 
 First emanated ! 
 
 Her breath is foul, her very atmosphere 
 Is foul polluted with the s-tygian stench! 
 She never .</////'* but seeing others' woes; 
 When others smile ln-r n / // i //>.< \r>, p blood!
 
 14 77/7'; SUNFL WER. 
 
 SUMMER SHOWER. 
 
 Hark! the tumult, splash and spatter 
 
 On the panes; 
 Sprinkling, dashing what's the matter! 
 
 What? it rains! 
 
 There some drops are quiet sleeping; 
 There some others stealthy creeping; 
 There see others antic leaping 
 
 Yes, it rains. 
 
 Not an urchin out at playing 
 
 Can be seen ; 
 Lambs and cattle heedless straying 
 
 O'er the green, 
 
 Now are scudding helter-skelter, 
 From the storm's terrific pelter, 
 To the shed or thicket shelter, 
 
 Or ravine. 
 
 Nor is seen a song bird flying 
 
 From her nest, 
 Though in garb of nature's buying 
 
 Is she drest; 
 
 Nor is heard a vocal strain 
 From creation's plural train; 
 Music of the hill and plain 
 
 Hushed to rest. 
 
 Lightnings glare, and booming thunder 
 
 Shake the hill; 
 Thirsty leaf and chalice under. 
 
 Drink their fill;
 
 W.MMER SHOWER. 15 
 
 In the driving tempest roaring 
 Now are heaven's torrents pouring, 
 Now in gentle mizzle lowering 
 Soft and still. 
 
 Ardent nature now is quenching 
 
 All her thirst, 
 Wary plowmen dreading drenching, 
 
 Scampered erst, 
 Grateful earth the bounty blessing, 
 Teeming fields the boon confessing, 
 In their hues of Eden dressing 
 
 Fresh as first. 
 
 For this hour storm curtains dense 
 
 Veiled the blue, 
 Lo, what richer recompense 
 
 Greets the view! 
 
 Sol returns and beaming brighter, 
 Larks and robins winging lighter, 
 Lilies washed and all the whiter, 
 
 All seem new. 
 
 LINES 
 
 On hearing a watch ticking in a lady's bosom. 
 
 Ah, little prattler, 
 Fashioned by art, 
 
 Ungallant tattler, 
 Spy of the heart!
 
 16 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 What are the messages, 
 Breathed in thy ears 
 
 Hopings or presages, 
 Trustings or fears? 
 
 Say, wast thou bidden there 
 
 Welcome, a guest? 
 Or cosy hidden there, 
 
 Cuddled to rest ? 
 Tell as you reckon on, 
 
 Does love beguile? 
 Has she a Corydon 
 
 Courting her smiles? 
 
 Comes there no sadness near 
 
 Where you recline? 
 Ever does gladness cheer? 
 
 Can she not pine? 
 Does ne'er that bosom heave 
 
 Griefs silent throes? 
 Does that heart never grieve 
 
 O'er secret woes? 
 
 Is virtue reigning there? 
 
 Does truth adorn? 
 No folly staining there? 
 
 Is there no thorn? 
 Are her days sunny all 
 
 Is there no gloom ? 
 Sips she no bitter gall 
 
 At dear one's tomb ? 
 
 "Ah! captious visitor, 
 Silence your theme !
 
 A WATCH TICKING. 17 
 
 Play not inquisitor 
 
 Into her dream. 
 Foibles of womankind 
 
 Lenient scan; 
 Faults of the humankind 
 
 Tarnish thee, man! 
 
 "I've not intruded here, 
 
 True is my tongue, 
 Nor been deluded here, 
 
 Thoughtless as young; 
 Emily lovingly 
 
 Gave me the place, 
 Never reprovingly 
 
 Shuts her embrace. 
 
 "Virtue and purity 
 
 Blush not for me, 
 Theirs the security 
 
 Wanton ones flee; 
 Thus in simplicity, 
 
 Stranger to strife 
 Rich in felicity 
 
 Passes my life. 
 
 "Such of my history 
 
 Freely I tell; 
 Hers in its mystery 
 
 Better to dwell; 
 Ne'er shall my vanity 
 
 Cause her to weep, 
 Friends of humanity 
 
 Counsels will keep. 
 
 "Hers is variety, 
 This I disclose,
 
 18 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 Pleased to satiety, 
 Sorrowed with woes, 
 
 Sore melancholy 
 Grieving in fears, 
 
 Gay fun and folly 
 Laughing in tears." 
 
 FLEETING SUMMER. 
 
 Summer's realm is passing away, 
 
 Dims her eye a lingering tear; 
 Hues that shone but yesterday gay, 
 
 Now are sallow, and brown, and sere. 
 Dashing round his saddening shade, 
 
 Autumn now the scepter assumes; 
 Urging on his plundering trade 
 
 Spoiling Earth of Eden's perfumes. 
 
 Flora fresh with amorous balm, 
 
 To his feet her offering brings, 
 Yielding up her flowery palm. 
 
 While the "AWe"* her requiem sings. 
 Corn that reared its tasseled head, 
 
 Vines that crept in lowly array, 
 Peas that twined and blossomed are dead, 
 
 So the Summer is passing away. 
 
 Hoar-frost sports his ruinous sheen, 
 
 Bleak winds growl their threatening wail, 
 
 Cowering landscapes barter their green, 
 Don in turn their sorrowing veil. 
 
 * Katy-did.
 
 FLEETING SUMMER. 19 
 
 From the trees their livery drops, 
 Rudely to their mouldering cast; 
 
 Lone and long their quivering tops 
 Wave beneath the wintry blast. 
 
 Birds hie off, deserting our clime, 
 
 Clime where Winter is king so long, 
 Where May notes perennial chime, 
 
 Chime in love's t-yuiphonious song. 
 Thus creation's varying throng, 
 
 Scenes and seasons gloomy and bright, 
 Doomed, are trailing tatters along. 
 
 Marching on to interminate night. 
 
 Thus Old Time is rushing his team; 
 
 So our life-hour hurries away, 
 Gone our years like story or dream, 
 
 Dream of a moment, glimpse of a day. 
 But adieu to them and their pain; 
 
 When our winter o.f life appears, 
 If we but an Eden regain. 
 
 Cliuie unmeasured by change of years. 
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 Again returns the story 
 Of Summer's fading glory, 
 In purple, brown, and hoary. 
 
 And chilly storm and gust: 
 The Old Lady hushes gladness, 
 (Yet to repine is madn< 
 And dons her weeds of sadness, 
 
 New-dyed in Autumn rust.
 
 20 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 Spring that was so inviting. 
 And Summer so delighting, 
 Autumn is now affrighting 
 
 With ruin chill and drear. 
 The vine has lost its cluster, 
 The corn its green and luster 
 Ah, Nature ! who can trust her 
 
 Deceitful smile or tear! 
 
 But time its steps are hasting; 
 
 As vegetations, wasting 
 
 By Autumn's prowess, tasting 
 
 Complete return to earth. 
 So, soon will artful Nature 
 Renew each cunning feature, 
 Replace each dying creature 
 
 With April's charming birth. 
 
 LINES. 
 
 Let crowned and mitred heads abide, 
 Beneath their figment, Royalty, 
 
 From all their pageantry and pride 
 Deliver me! 
 
 Let dukes and highborn fools invite 
 To costly banquets proudly given, 
 
 Whose luxuries without requite 
 From serfs are riven. 
 
 Let idle nabobs loll at ease, 
 
 And win the vulgar gaping gaze,
 
 LINES. 21 
 
 Can mind regale upon a breeze 
 Of heartless praise ! 
 
 The sordid miser anxious keeps 
 Keen vigil o'er his wasting trust; 
 
 Let him, his god is in his heaps 
 Of cankering dust! 
 
 I deprecate his sordid pains; 
 
 I spurn their titled dignities. 
 I love where equal justice reigns, 
 
 And Freedom is. 
 
 I love the man who tills the soil, 
 With no temptations far to roam, 
 
 Providing with his cheerful toil 
 For his "sweet home." 
 
 Around his ingle free of strife, 
 
 His life a peaceful river runs; 
 Where happy are his bonny wife 
 
 And little ones. 
 
 He scorns ambition's fickle nod, 
 
 And bids each showy fantom "hence I" 
 
 His guide is Nature, Nature's God 
 And common sense. 
 
 Thus his felicities increase, 
 
 Though years increasing dim his eyes, 
 Preparing for a home of peace 
 
 In purer skies. 1845>
 
 22 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 LIBERTY SONG. 
 
 TUNE. Burlington. 
 
 Awake all ye Freemen and hear the glad story, 
 And swell with emotion each patriot breast! 
 
 The vile blot that darkened the disk of our glory, 
 Is biding the Voter's behest. 
 
 Their heralds are crying on wings of the morning, 
 Nor shall their entreaties be uttered in vain, 
 
 For thousands on thousands are heeding the warning, 
 And plead for the suffering train. 
 
 Speed on, ye bright heralds of Emancipation ! 
 
 And spread the glad tidings of Freedom's bright day: 
 That from this exalted, this sturdy young nation, 
 
 Oppression is fleeing away. 
 
 Ye slaves of the South, turn your anguish to laughter, 
 And dry up the fountains that furnish your tears, 
 
 For Freedom's sweet song shall employ you hereafter, 
 And none shall torment you with fears. \ 
 
 The lash of the master shall echo no longer, 
 The wail of the slave-mother ever shall cease; 
 
 Men's hearts and the Nation's grow stronger and 
 
 stronger, 
 As the slave walks to freedom and peace. 
 
 Will minstrels sit longer in sorrow ! No never ! 
 
 The dirge has already employed them too long, 
 They'll render thanksgiving and praises forever 
 
 In chanting the ''Liberty Song."
 
 LIFE. 23 
 
 Unite then, each Freeman, in raptures of pleasure, 
 The chorus of Freedom falls sweet on the ear, 
 
 Unite in thanksgiving to God for the treasure 
 
 Of freedom to Freemen so dear. 18 44. 
 
 LIFE. 
 
 Lo ! the busy breathing throng, 
 
 Sporting in the beams of day ! 
 Pleasure's sunshine a'l d;iy long 
 
 Steals their cares and pains away. 
 Loves of action and of ease 
 
 In all right relation-* tend; 
 Labor, pastime equal please, 
 
 Equal serve the pleasing end. 
 
 God did plant it and it grew 
 
 Something high o'er base control 
 Filling every avenue 
 
 Of the body, spirit, soul : 
 This is LTPK ! a magic dower 
 
 Life diffused throughout, above; 
 Bird that in each bosom's bower, 
 
 Sings its rhapsodies of love. 
 
 So, as myriad sentient things 
 Mingle in the merry strife, 
 
 Happiness spontaneous sprii 
 From each element of life : 
 
 Sense and sight awak^ the strain, 
 
 I'a.-sioii warms the throbbing breast,
 
 24 THE SUNFL WER. 
 
 Thought directs the teeming train, 
 Ruled by reason's high behest. 
 
 That is Life where every power 
 
 Its organic plan fulfills ; 
 In the sweet and tinted flower, 
 
 Cup where nectar dew distils; 
 In the daisy on the mountain; 
 
 In the verdure on the trees; 
 In the pearly gushing fountain ; 
 
 In the fragrance of the breeze; 
 
 In the acorn that's buried 
 
 Beneath the wood s >il ; 
 In the seeds that are planted 
 
 By husbandman's toil; 
 In the herbage that carpets 
 
 The prairie and lawn, 
 Where sport in wild freedom 
 
 The rabbit and fawn; 
 
 In the bear in the forest ; 
 
 The wolf in the ledge; 
 In the lamb on the meadow, 
 
 The mouse in the hedge; 
 In the frog in the puddle 
 
 The rail in the brake; 
 The trout by the ripple, 
 
 The duck on the lake; 
 
 In the dove's mellow cooing, 
 
 The lark's merry theme, 
 In the robin's sweet wooing, 
 
 In the eagle's wild scream, 
 Through earth, air and ocean of permeant life, 
 
 All Nature with pleasure of being is rife.
 
 TEMPERANCE J UBILEE. 25 
 
 TO THE TIPPLER. 
 
 Though the goblet so witchingly lure, 
 
 Spurn it, for infamy lurks in the bowl? 
 There a Syren while proffering cure, 
 
 Plunges her dart in the stultified soul. 
 Filled is her beaker with complicate sorrow 
 
 Though flaunting around with enticing display 
 Her sweets of to-day become woes of to-morrow, 
 
 Her venom like viper's so poisons your clay. 
 
 TEMPERANCE JUBILEE. 
 
 Lo, the Temperance Jublilee comes ! 
 
 Bright is the banner she over us flings: 
 Slaves of Bacchus in desolate homes. 
 
 Freely may share in the pleasure she brings. 
 See how she's laden ! her basket is teeming 
 
 With comfort and health to the needy and wan, 
 Sweetly her eyes with divinity beaming, 
 
 And darkness and sorrow before her are gone. 
 Hail Thou, Temperance, goddess of peace, 
 
 Hallowed genius that scatters our fears! 
 Brings the desolate kindly release, 
 
 Chasing their sorrows and wiping their tears ! 
 Hail to thy conquests with loud acclamation, 
 
 That vanquishes IJacdius and frees the forlorn, 
 The cause that of thousands has been the salvation, 
 
 The solace of millions, let triumph adorn!
 
 26 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 MY WIFE. 
 
 My Wife, dear partner of my youth, 
 
 Companion of my age, 
 True type of virtue, love and truth, 
 
 My comforter and sage: 
 Her smile tike sunbeam to unfold 
 
 My bloom of head and heart, 
 Shall valued be of price untold, 
 
 Till life in death depart. 
 
 I love her for her loveliness 
 
 Of feature, spirit, mind, 
 Full elements, without excess, 
 
 Of essence most refined. 
 Her gentle hands, though never made 
 
 To guide the sturdy plow, 
 Are oft in sweet affection laid 
 
 To frooth my anxious brow. 
 
 Let others the wild mazes roam 
 
 To sate their lawless love, 
 But let me aye abide at h<>me 
 
 With mv own charming dove. 
 Would t exchange her pure embrace 
 
 For all the wanton train? 
 O'erpall with grief that angel face, 
 
 And pierce that heart with pain ! 
 
 I ask no monarch's crown to lay 
 
 Its weight upon my head: 
 Let me the unambitious way 
 
 Of upright manhood tread.
 
 THE FASHIONABLES. 27 
 
 While Heaven warrants to extend 
 
 My residue of life, 
 Grant me this true and bosom friend, 
 
 My dear confiding wife. 1348. 
 
 THE FASHIONABLES. 
 
 How Fashion, vain, capricious jade, 
 
 Gee-haws her silly victims round! 
 In Folly's flaunting garb arrayed, 
 
 They list her every plausfve sound. 
 Content to pi <y doll-baby p;irt. 
 
 These semblances of human kind, 
 Deform their bodies by their art. 
 
 And starve th' invaluable mind. 
 
 Better design of dough or dirt, 
 
 An image of the human form. 
 And dress it as they would a flirt. 
 
 No matter whether cool or warm 
 Deck it with tawdry, gems and curls, 
 
 \ndjniiiif the blushes on its face, 
 (Fair sample of our modish girls, 
 
 Fantouis for simpletons to chase!) 
 
 But let the human form divine 
 
 Retain its native beauty still; 
 Thwart not its Maker's wise design, 
 
 Mar not its Maker's wondrous skill! 
 That /o/-; if prized like other things, 
 
 And va'u-'d for the u-orth it xhrincs, 
 'Tis casket keeping richer nem 
 
 Than ever lit Golconda'a mines.
 
 28 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 EQUALITY. 
 
 God never made an Autocrat, 
 In all His broad creation, 
 
 A monster bandit whose fiat 
 Should rule a man or nation. 
 
 God never made a chattel slave; 
 
 Such pitiless infliction 
 Would mar the plan His wisdom gave, 
 
 With glaring contradiction. 
 
 But made mankind for liberty, 
 And bade them live as brothers; 
 
 Gave each his own in equity. 
 One reckoned with anothers. 
 
 In this let each their homage pay 
 To Him their own Creator, 
 
 And thus of Love and Truth each day 
 Be rich participator^ 
 
 Let none despise a wholesome toil : 
 It makes the poor man wealthy; 
 
 To dig subsistence from the soil 
 MakeS feeble mortals healthy. 
 
 Whatever I myself can do 
 
 I will not ask of others; 
 To "live and let live," help live! too, 
 
 Becomes all human brothers. 
 
 When pitted in the cause of right, 
 And none to staud beside me,
 
 ETHICS OF TRADE. 
 
 I will contend with main and might, 
 
 Though justice be denjed me. 1345. 
 
 ETHICS OF TRADE. 
 
 A fig for him whose silly heart 
 
 Confides in wily proft'erings, 
 A victim sheer of sharpers' smart, 
 
 Their wiles and crafty offerings; 
 For honesty in intercourse 
 
 Was long ago forgotten ; 
 The moral sense has lost its force, 
 
 The SQcial heart is rotten. 
 
 Saddlebags, now "warrants health," 
 
 To get his bread well buttered ; 
 Er\f't\ his pockets stuffs with wealth, 
 
 For honied phrases uttered; 
 Shears, declares the neatest fits; 
 
 Yardstick, pledges cheapest; 
 Jnt/<ll<-r, prospers by his wits, 
 
 Skilled in tricks the deepest. 
 
 Thus chicanery and fraud, 
 
 Lying, cheating, scheming, 
 Spread their network all abroad, 
 
 To snare the unschooled or dreaming; 
 To lure the simple in their toils, 
 
 And filch their health and earnings; 
 And make of innocence their spoils, 
 
 Reckless of dear heart-yearnings. 1345.
 
 30 THE S UNFL WER. 
 
 SOLILOQUY. 
 
 Just give me skill my ends to plan, 
 
 And nerve and muscle equal, 
 I'll be an independent man, 
 
 Uncaring for the sequel j 
 I would not ask of human kind 
 
 A favor or a blessing, 
 But gain for body and for mind 
 
 All that is worth pussessmg. 
 
 And when I sail Avernus o'er 
 
 I'll take my own conveyance, 
 I'll seize Old Charon's helm and oar, 
 
 My motto, '-No delayance!" 
 Let dash Avernus' breakers high, 
 
 And tempests shake my coffin, 
 And wild tornadoes wreck the sky 
 
 Fit scene my clay to doff in ! 1845 
 
 OBEDIENCE. 
 
 [ 3 
 
 Nature of blessings vouches bounteous share, 
 
 Nature begotten of some Great First Cause j 
 The ''Curse of Providence" is but to bear 
 
 The fatal sequence of infracted laws. 
 Sorrow and pain are fruits from off that tree 
 
 Which ne'er was planted by obeying hands, 
 Grown by permission, urging leave to be, 
 
 Apostate harvest of perverted land*.
 
 THE FOBS A A'A'.V ',s' L. 1 MENT. 31 
 
 THE FORSAKEN'S LA.MENT, 
 
 A DREAM. 
 
 A musing through a shady grove, 
 
 By purling stream, 
 I laid me 'neath a shady bower, 
 
 To sleep to dream. 
 Sweet blossoms drowsy shed perfumes 
 
 O'er heart and head, 
 And softly through the quivering leaves, 
 
 The sunbeams played. 
 The merry birds that thronged the air 
 
 Around, above, 
 Their chimes so sweetly struck my ear, 
 
 1 dreamed of luve : 
 Anon I heard a plaintive moan 
 
 Of person nigh, 
 I looked, and lo! a damsel fair 
 
 Appeared close by. 
 Around her chastened charming face 
 
 Played auburn tresses, 
 While light and blush and mystic grace, 
 
 That aye impresses, 
 Beamed out o'er cheek and eye and lip, 
 
 So redolent; 
 'Twas truth and love and innocence 
 
 In beauty blent. 
 
 With a form that a fairy would prize," 
 And accents out-vyintr the birds, 
 
 And dashing the tears from her eyes, 
 She uttered her anguish in words.
 
 32 THE SUNFL WEE. 
 
 And who could forget those sweet tones, 
 So chastened in sadness and wrong, 
 
 When, weary of weeping and moans, 
 She uttered her sorrow in song: 
 
 "Ye birds that flit from spray to spray, 
 And gaily chant your twittering theme; 
 
 Ye squirrels chattering in the trees, 
 Ye minnows sporting in the stream; 
 
 "Ye grouse that hie on fleetest wing, 
 And ducks that plod along the fen; 
 
 Ye herons poised in ether high, 
 
 Far o'er the haunts of faithless men; 
 
 "Ye lambs that frolic on the green; 
 
 Ye conies skulking on the lea; 
 Ye dappled, timid, forest fawns, 
 
 Cast one kind look on hapless rne? 
 
 "Ye sullen clouds that heedlet-s fly, 
 
 Regard tne as ye pass along! 
 Ye whirling winds that rend the sky, 
 
 Be still and hear niy tale of wrong ! 
 
 "Through childhood I sported 
 
 In freedom like you; 
 Regaled on life's nectars, 
 
 And laved in its dew, 
 Till sought by the charmer 
 
 Who won my esteem, 
 Then quickly evanished 
 
 The sweet of my dream. 
 
 "I lived in the cottage 
 By yonder wood-side;
 
 Fond sire and mother 
 All wishes supplied: 
 
 No brother or sister 
 ' A truant would roam, 
 
 For love and contentment 
 Pervaded that home. 
 
 "Anon, o'er the prairie 
 
 A neighboring swain, 
 To taste of that Eden 
 
 Came again and again ; 
 With eyes softly beaming 
 
 And tenderest tone, 
 He wooed me and promised 
 
 To make me his own. 
 
 "In tones of such sweetness 
 
 He called me his l<ive, 
 How could I refuse him 
 
 To mate with the dove? 
 Alas ! the sad lesson 
 
 I learn it too late, 
 For the dove that I cherished 
 
 Has flown from its mate. 
 
 "I loved him sincerely, 
 
 I thought he loved me; 
 I prized him most dearly, 
 
 And thought he prized me. 
 With gushing affection 
 
 My holy love burned, 
 And in his caresses 
 
 I thought it returned. 
 
 "I'd nothing to give him 
 Of trappings or pelf,
 
 34 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 But the treasure far richer 
 
 My innocent self; 
 As pure as the dew drop 
 
 This bosom of mine, 
 What more could he covet 
 
 His heart to inshrine? 
 
 "How could he thus leave me 
 
 In anguish to pine 
 How could he so trifle 
 
 With such love as mine! 
 Why am I forsaken? 
 
 0, what have I done 
 That I am deserted 
 
 By that faithless one? 
 
 "Let prairies don perpetual gloom, 
 
 And fields their golden harvests flee; 
 Let Spring depart no more to bloom, 
 
 Since my false swain's deserted me. 
 And let me fly" beyond these scenes 
 
 To climes where suffering spirits rest, 
 To realms where unrequited love 
 
 Shall never more disturb the breast." 
 
 FAITH HOPE LOVE. 
 
 But for the Faith that points a better goal, 
 And Hope that promises fruition there, 
 
 And Love that sweetens earth's embittered bowl 
 With nectar grateful to the longing soul, 
 
 Man better were the senseless clam or bear.
 
 THE GRAVES. 35 
 
 THE GRATES. 
 
 The spade gives the dead both a bed and a cover 
 And levels distinctions in plebeian earth, 
 
 There round the dark cavern do weeping friends hover, 
 And hush in deep silence all accents of mirth. 
 
 In the grave there the brave and the timid lie sleeping, 
 The high and the low in the same kindred dust, ^ 
 
 While reptiles so loathsome are carnivals keeping 
 O'er all that remains of ambition or lust. 
 
 In the gloom of the tomb lies the wretch from his hovel, 
 At his side from his pride lies the king from his 
 throne, 
 
 The wretch none abashed by position so novel, 
 The king well content that his size is his own. 
 
 Will the grave of the slave be a whit the less quiet, ' 
 Because his late owner lies close at his side? 
 
 His carcass no better delectable diet 
 
 For worms: but what of his splendor and pride? ^ 
 
 There's a grave 'neath the wave'where the millions lie 
 
 hidden, 
 
 Who roamed o'er the oceans their fortunes to tell, 
 By war and tornado and pestilence bidden, 
 
 And are rocked in their slumbers by proud ocean's 
 swell.
 
 36 THE SUNFL WER. 
 
 THE OX. 
 
 The ox, the patient ox, is doomed to toil, 
 
 To wear through heat and cold and drouth and rain, 
 
 The heavy yoke, to draw the rooting plow, 
 
 And lead the neap that weighs the teeming loads 
 
 Of fresh produce from hill and dale and mead, 
 
 Home to the thrifty farmer's barn and crib, 
 
 A rich reward of toiling man and beast. 
 
 How fares he then? 
 
 The blasts of Winter chill, and burning Sol 
 Darts on him scorching beams, vile tongues blaspheme, 
 And cruel hands deal blows unmerciful: 
 
 He bears them all 
 For scanty pittance of his da Hi/ food. 
 
 HAPPY FIRE SIDE. 
 
 Round the pleasant "Ingle" side 
 All endearments center, 
 
 Realm that nothing may divide, 
 
 Nothing rude miy enter: 
 Likeness of Hie home above, 
 
 Every heart will shrine it, 
 Truth and purity and love 
 
 Clustering will twine it.
 
 A LAMENT. 
 
 O'er each feature, sense and form, 
 
 Life its 'chantuients throwing, 
 Love through every bosom warm 
 
 In sweet currents glowing. 
 No unkindly p;issions spring 
 
 Scenes like these to sadden; 
 Words will only pleasure bring, 
 
 Smiles will cheer and gladden. 
 
 A LAMENT. 
 
 The polar winds of bleak November blew, 
 
 Dismantled trees their naked summits shook, 
 O'er fields the snow in whirling eddies flew, 
 
 And icy floors bridged the running brook; 
 I monning lay upon my couch of pain, 
 
 Despondent, musing on the wastrd past, 
 Keen fancy's specters flitting through the brain; 
 
 Their gloomy shadows o'er my spirit cast. 
 
 The golden moments of impressive youth 
 
 In folly wasted, the illuring cheat 
 Had gu'phed the soul, Religion, Reason, Truth, 
 
 All strewn in ruin at her dazzling feet. 
 (Thus sport the young in dissipation's way, 
 
 In wild tornadoes of their youthful fire; 
 Thus pleasure frenzied, passion bears the sway, 
 
 And each indulgence heaves the tempest higher.) 
 
 Dejected wretch ! nor hope the spirit finds 
 Death-robbed forever of those hopeful ones
 
 38 THE S UNFL WER. 
 
 Whose stately forms and whose unfolding minds 
 Could cheer the parents' lonely setting suns. 
 
 The future what? 'tis but unsightly dream, 
 A vague conjecture of an unknown wild! 
 
 Ye Powers above, vouchsafe one glinting beam 
 To light the evening of thy luckless child? 
 
 Oh horrid thought! and who could but repine, 
 
 Thus cruel flung on Fate's remorseless wave 
 \ictiui devote of premature decline, 
 
 And soon to die and strangers turf his grave? 
 Forbid it. Heaven ! but hopeless the refrain, 
 
 Since life is ebbing to its last degree; 
 Disease is wasting, soon its grief and pain 
 
 Will close the mission of the dire decree. 
 
 And neighbors kind with melancholy pace, 
 
 And drooping head, will near the gloomy spot, 
 Consign me to the quiet resting place, 
 
 To sleep unwaking and my memory rot. 
 Depart my kin ! let Gorgons dress my tomb, 
 
 And on its face "Annihilation" write; 
 Let thought be hushed in everlasting gloom, 
 
 As life is smothered in eternal nijjht. 
 
 SPRING MORNING. 
 
 Day is springing 
 Birds are singing, 
 Music flinging 
 O'er the lea;
 
 SPRING MORNING. 39 
 
 Rills are flowing, 
 Herds are lowing, 
 Cocks are crowing 
 Forth their glee. 
 
 Budding bowers, 
 Bursting flowers 
 Genial showers 
 
 Lave the green; 
 Earth confessing 
 Sol's caressing, 
 New is dressing 
 
 Like a Queen. 
 
 Flowers long slumbered 
 Wake unnumbered 
 Bee and huuibird 
 
 To invite ; 
 On their pistils, 
 Pearly crystals 
 Sport like vestals 
 
 Kobed in light. 
 
 Frogs are peeping, 
 Reptiles creeping, 
 From their sleeping 
 
 Insects rise; 
 All before us, 
 'Neath and o'er us, 
 Join in chorus 
 
 To the skies.
 
 40 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 FREEDOM'S STAR. 
 
 Though proud Columbia wide maintains 
 Her ''Stars and Stripes" o'er seas and plains, 
 Not half the luster now pertains, 
 
 That graced them when they first arose ! 
 When Freedom first upon her gleamed, 
 And Independence smiling beamed, 
 Her soaring Eagle dauntless screamed 
 
 Defiance on her tyrant foes. 
 
 But now the wail of Slavery rings; 
 
 A cancer at her vitals stings 
 
 A blight and mildew o'er her flings, 
 
 And mourning drapes her ensign brave. 
 Alas, for her degenerate sons! 
 Their sires ne'er blanched for tyrant's guns, 
 But they in dread of proud Southrons, 
 
 Dare scarcely whisper for the Slave! 
 
 So long has man a Slave been trod! 
 As long have Masters swayed the rod ! 
 Insulting thus their Maker, God, 
 
 And bathed humanity in tears. 
 This sordid nation yet shall wake, 
 Shall all its Slavery fetters break, 
 And for its wrongs atonement make 
 
 And cheer the Slaves' declining years. 
 
 Columbia then may rule afar, 
 
 And millions hail her morning star, 
 
 Re-echo round the long huzza: 
 
 "Of none destroying, none oppressed !"
 
 BICKERINGS. 41 
 
 Her ''Stars and Stripes" then bright will shine, 
 Lit with a halo mo-t divine ; 
 United all her sons combine 
 
 In Freedom's bonds supremely blest. 1844. 
 
 A CHAPTER ON BICKERINGS. 
 
 TO WHOM IT CONCERNS. 
 
 Don't harry your neighbor, Dick Grum! 
 
 He's not made for a tabor, 
 
 Nor to stick with a saber; 
 
 Besides for your labor 
 'T wont pay, Dick Grum. 
 
 These neighborhood quirrels, Dick Grum, 
 
 Don't spring of good morals; 
 
 Have butter from corals, 
 
 Or sug;ir from sorrels 
 As soon, Dick Grum. 
 
 Don't tease Mamma Deaver, Dick Grum, 
 
 Alone I pray leave her ! 
 
 If she is a deceiver 
 
 You'll not gain by your fever 
 Against her, Dick Grum. 
 
 'Tis an unequal battle, Dick Grum, 
 
 For a boy with a rattle 
 
 Can blatter and prattle 
 
 And gossip and tattle 
 'Bout woman, Dick Grum.
 
 42 THE SUNFL WER. 
 
 Away with your slander, Dick Grum, 
 
 A gabbling old gander 
 
 Appears a "heap" grander 
 
 Than you as you pander 
 To your spleen, Dick Grum. 
 
 Be admonished in season, Dick Grum, 
 
 'Tis wasting your weasand 
 
 'Tis social high treason; 
 
 Religion and reason 
 Forbid it, Dick Grum. 
 
 Incessant fault-finding, Dick Grum, 
 
 A*nd worming and winding 
 
 And grabbing and grinding, 
 
 (Ones better part blinding), 
 Is ruin, Dick Grum. 
 
 Be something or nothing, Dick Grum, 
 
 On self does your lothing, 
 
 Your vaporing, wrothing, 
 
 Your fretting and fruthing 
 Recoil, Dick Grum. 1850 
 
 VARIETIES. 
 
 As differ men in stature, forms and faces, 
 
 So they, in minds and morals, tastes and graces, 
 
 Show parents, nations, species, stocks and races.
 
 THE DANDY. 
 
 THE DANDY. 
 
 The Dandy pshaw! the funky iness 
 
 Conceited, powdered noodle, 
 With naught of value but his dress, 
 
 A noddy, a fopdoodle. 
 
 This rara avis strutting goes 
 On end like human creatures; 
 
 That vacant shell behind the nose 
 Is shaped like human features. 
 
 [Tis bootless task to hunt for soul, 
 
 No matter what our craving, 
 Nought con we do but save the hole, 
 
 And that's not worth the saving.] 
 
 His locks done up with curling rods, 
 His bosom gemmed with broaches, 
 
 Whate'er of him would please the gods 
 Is shamed by the cockroaches. 
 
 Trinkets adorn his paws and ears 
 
 In fashion most exquisite; 
 ''Poll"* sees! abashed and most in tears, 
 
 At first cried out: '-What is it?" 
 
 Then, "Hell of cheat! carcass and curls 
 
 And every merit counted. 
 Fit walking-stick for silly girls, 
 
 Brass-headed and gold mounted!" 
 
 * Parrot.
 
 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 Sooner than that waste thing, a fop, 
 
 I'd be a clam or donkey, 
 Or hooting owl on yon tree top, 
 
 Or weathercock or monkey. 
 
 THE KINDLY. 
 
 Every kindly act we do 
 Memory loves to treasure, 
 
 Prompting to the good and true 
 Lights our way to pleasure. 
 
 Every kind impulse of soul 
 Towards a human creature, 
 
 Adds a drop to bliss' bowl, 
 Marks angelic feature. 
 
 Every pure and gentle thought, 
 
 Every hallowed feeling. 
 Mingles nectar with each draught, 
 
 Fount of heaven revealing. 
 
 Sweet response of heart to heart 
 Swells beyond expressing; 
 
 Who'd not happiness impart 
 Thus repaid with blessing?
 
 DEDICATION OF ALBUM. 45 
 
 DEDICATION OF ALBUM, 
 For my dear Niece, Mary E. Steward. 
 
 The little bee departs his cell 
 
 As morning shadows vanish, 
 To sip the honey dews that fell, 
 
 His storehouse to replenish. 
 The humbird hies from her modest tree 
 
 Where swings her downy palace, 
 Kissing the blooms along the lea, 
 
 Tasting each nectar chalice. 
 
 So speed this book through mental bowers, 
 
 And social landscapes tripping, 
 Free as the bird that kisses the flowers, 
 
 Or bee that the nectar is sipping. 
 These virgin leaves without a stain 
 
 To Virtue and Truth are given, 
 And never be their silver chain 
 
 By fraud or flattery riven ! 
 
 Let Purity glow on every page, 
 
 And Innocence play in each line; 
 Blend fancy of youth with firmness of age, 
 
 In feeling and thought divine. 
 Here compliments may be expressed, 
 
 And gratulttions offered; 
 Even sweet affinities confessed, 
 
 And gentle praises proffered. 
 
 Friendships may here ambrosials bring 
 
 Fresh from the Spirit gale; 
 Affection twine her offering, 
 
 And love breathe the tender tale.
 
 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 The wealth of regal diadems 
 
 On brow of Empress twined, 
 Is nought compared with these richer gems 
 
 Culled from the garden of mind. 
 
 Here genius and skill may paint a book; 
 
 Here wisdom or wit may speak, 
 But never indulge in word or look 
 
 That would tinge the young maid's cheek! 
 For these, all these is this Album sent 
 
 To greet each generous donor, 
 To richer return, but pure as it went, 
 
 To Mary its thankful owner. April, 1850. 
 
 PRAIRIE GIRL. 
 
 A maiden rose from her rural bed, 
 
 In early morn in May, 
 And o'er the fragrant prairie sped 
 
 To gather a fresh buquet. 
 
 With airy gait and fleet as the fawn, 
 She flings to the breeze her tresses, 
 
 Repainting her cheeks with the glow of dawn, 
 The art that cupid confesses. 
 
 Tasty as nature her form is dressed, 
 
 Sincerity speaks in her face; 
 Every line is beauty expressed, 
 
 And every action, grace;
 
 FOLLY AND FUN. 47 
 
 Soul unsullied with moral stain, 
 And spirit as light as the bee, 
 
 Her critic vision scans the plain 
 For flowers as sweet as she. 
 
 Her dextrous fingers snap the stems, 
 Supporting the blossoms rare, 
 
 And on her fair bosom lays the gems 
 To lavish their fragrance there. 
 
 FOLLY AND FUN. 
 
 Folly vain and antic 
 
 Humbling through the mazes, 
 O er the hills and meadows, 
 
 Snatching oft' the daises. 
 Fun is growing frantic, 
 
 As excitement crazes, 
 In the lights and shadows 
 
 Of jack-o-lautern blazes; 
 
 Hieing after pleasure 
 
 Dancing onward ever, 
 While the coquette treasure 
 
 Mocks the vain endeavor, 
 Till the murky river 
 
 Swallows him from sight, 
 And they sink forever, 
 
 In forgotten ni^ht.
 
 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF 
 
 CHARLES MADISON CARVER, 
 
 Who died (as was reported by his friend, "William Plumas, who 
 buried him "beneath the shade of a pine tree,") on the bank of 
 the Middle Yuba River, California, July 28th, 1850. His age, 
 twenty-five years arid one month. 
 
 On the bleak western mount where the dark Yuba flows, 
 And the Savage wild empire is keeping, 
 
 Beneath a lone pine in their lasting repose, 
 The remains of a loved one are sleeping. 
 
 He left his "sweet home" 'mid remonstrance and tears, 
 
 (His "adieu" was a farewell forever), 
 To meet in the sequel his friends' darkest fears, 
 
 To return again never no never ! 
 
 But to lie down and die on the "gold-digger's" claim, 
 Nor a "way side acquaint" even near him; 
 
 No love of a brother to whisper his nam, 
 Nor sister's affection to cheer him : 
 
 The forest his shelter, the cold earth his bed, 
 
 A stone lying there was his pillow; 
 But who will inhume when the spirit is fled? 
 
 Who plant o'er his resting the willow? 
 
 Poor boy! 'tis sad on his exit to think 
 The pangs as each life-drop is wasting 
 
 Prostrated and helpless and poised on the brink, 
 And life to its terminus hasting: !
 
 DEATH OF C. M. CARVER. 49 
 
 Oh could his dim eye ere it darkens in death, 
 Catch one glimpse of a sister or brother! 
 
 Or could he be suffered his vanishing breath 
 To breathe in the "sweet ear of mother!" 
 
 0, how 't would console him! his laboring heart 
 Would laugh in the midst of its anguish; 
 
 'T would ease to his suffering senses impart, 
 And e'en reconcile him to languish. 
 
 Bat these are forbid him, and Charlie, unblest, 
 
 Alone on a "placer" reclining, 
 There sighs to the darkness and sinks to his rest, 
 
 And worms gather in for their dining. 
 
 EPISODE. 
 
 To die in "sweet home," on a love-circled bed, 
 
 A fond sister's hand to caress him; 
 A dear mother's bosom to pillow his head, 
 
 And sweet tones to comfort and bless him ; 
 
 Her angelic ear to record his last breath, 
 
 Breathed out like the zephyr's soft sighing 
 
 Is this the dark moment they're wont to call death? 
 No surely, this can not be dying! 
 
 And friendship to heap him a neat rural grave, 
 
 And lay the green turf for a cover, 
 Where ivy will twine and the amaranth wave, 
 
 And angelic spirits o'er hover. 
 
 No : call it not death it never can be, 
 But a transit from sighing and sorrow: 
 
 The spirit escapes from its prison house free, 
 And wakes to a happier morrow.
 
 50 TUB SUNFLOWER. 
 
 But to lie down and die on a gold-digger's claim, 
 Far away on the cold rugged mountain, 
 
 Too sick to return by the pathway he came, 
 Or crawl to the thirst-cooling fountain: 
 
 No music to hear but the vulture and crow 
 
 And buzzard in villainous clauior, 
 As hovering o'er him expiring below, 
 
 They jabber their horrible grammar. 
 
 Yes to die like the wolf, the cold earth for his lair, 
 And famishing kites flapping o'er him; 
 
 The zephyr that fans him the breath of the bear 
 That eagerly waits to devour him! 
 
 But enough 0, mercy ! beneath a dark screen 
 The heart-shocking tragedy seal it! 
 
 O, Lethe! embrace the soul-sickening scene, 
 And never no, never reveal it! 
 
 The breeze of the valley that moans through the pine, 
 
 Seems sad with the tale of his dying. 
 And plaintive implores of the IMercy Divine 
 
 A respite from sorrow and sighing. 
 
 The wild horse and bison and moose of the plain, 
 
 In silence move off to their haven; 
 The tribes wont to feast on the blood of the slain, 
 
 Forget for a season to raven. 
 
 The yell of the panther, the growl of the bear, 
 Are hushed .when they chance to approach him: 
 
 The invisible powers have made him their care, 
 And harm is forbidden to touch him.
 
 DEATH OF C. M. CARVER. 51 
 
 Ye fallows that graze by the meadow-girt lake 
 
 And drink of its mirroring bosom; 
 Ye pheasants that brood 'neath the sheltering brake 
 
 Where the plum and the wild apple blossom. 
 
 Ye squirrels and conies that chatter and toy 
 'Along herbage and trees, haste before her, 
 
 The mother the mother bereft of her boy, 
 And unite ye in moans to deplore her! 
 
 The eagle that towers in Sol's vivid light, 
 Beyond where the rude tempests gather, 
 
 Or sits like the genius of storm on the height, 
 Nor heeds the tornadoes beneath her, 
 
 Yes: she that can laugh at the sky- wrecking storm, 
 Now cowers her proud pinions before him, 
 
 And screams out the wail of that desolate form, 
 The mother the mother that bore him. 
 
 Ye robins and thrushes a carol here sing 
 And the pine where our hero reposes, 
 
 Ye seasons endow it perpetual Spring 
 And twine it with supernal roses. 
 
 Now fare thee well, Charlie, adieu, hapless child! 
 
 Thou wast torn from the bosoms that bless thee! 
 Let sylvans around thee chant wood-notes wild, 
 
 And sylphs in their sweetest caress thee. 
 
 Yes: fare thee well, brother, a lasting farewell! 
 
 Mountain winds their sad requiem sing theej 
 Each leaf of the pine ever whispers thy knell, 
 
 And elves their devotion aye bring thee. 
 
 There calm be thy slumber unruffled by dream 
 Or the "grisly" that near by is growling;
 
 52 THE SUNFL WER. 
 
 Unmindful alike of the eagle's wild scream, 
 _0r the ravening wolf's angry howling. 
 
 Intense is thy quiet and peaceful thy bed, 
 Unheeding the earth rocking thunder; 
 
 The lightning may shiver the "pine" at thy head, 
 But nought will awake thee from under! 
 
 Thy struggle and turmoil so early are done, 
 Both venture and '-gold fever" ended, 
 
 But thy shade a hereafter far better has won, 
 By clime and kin spirits befriended. 
 
 YOUTH. 
 
 Merry as the fairy elf 
 
 With her shadow playing, 
 Thoughtless of its coming self, 
 
 Youth is careless straying; 
 Changeful as the fitful vane, 
 Wayward runs the giddy train 
 
 Through the dreamy mazes; 
 Glimpses of a better day 
 Flung to light the better way, 
 
 Are lost in passion's hazes. 
 
 THE NEGLECTED BOY. 
 
 Child of ignorant and thoughtless parents, abandoned to the 
 society of vulgar, vicious associates, often much older than 
 he being an apt scholar, soon becomes schooled in all the 
 vices of Billingsgate, and grows an expert teacher in the perpi ( 
 ual school in which himself graduated. Thus vices and crimes 
 are multiplied indefinitely.
 
 COUNTRY VS. CITY. 
 
 See him run his wanton race, 
 
 Careless, crazed and tearless; 
 Wild in folly's giddy chase, 
 
 Lost in mazes cheerless. 
 Smothered conscience scarcely warns, 
 
 Heckles-) of the morrow. 
 Plants his future path with thorns, 
 
 Spreads his bed with sorrow; 
 Grows to manhood in disgrace 
 
 Mercy bleeds to tell it! 
 Blots God's image from his face, 
 
 And for nought would sell it! 
 How can reason him control 
 
 Sentiments all blighted, 
 Fires of Etna flame his soul, 
 
 Love in lust benighted? 
 He strolls a blot upon the earth, 
 
 Filthy tatters clothe him. 
 Lives for ribaldry and mirth, 
 
 All things decent loathe him. 
 
 COUNTRY vs. CITY; 
 NATURE vs. ART. 
 
 A buxom damsel in her teens, 
 Weary of rustic country seems, 
 To city hied to shed her greens 
 
 And don the graces; 
 Alack to her refinement means, 
 
 Airs and grimaces !
 
 54 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 With gentle folk to walk and speak, 
 She barters off the blooming cheek, 
 The winsome mien and manners meek, 
 
 These charms of woman 
 And calls them now too vulgar, weak, 
 
 Too rude and common. 
 
 Now mark her on the city street, 
 With her companions there you meet, 
 See you divine Diana's gait 
 
 And fair proportions? 
 No: but deformity complete 
 
 Their gait, distortions. 
 
 Got up by modish forms and hws, 
 Great dolls hung over with gewgaws, 
 As beads and wampum deck the squaws, 
 
 And vain as monkeys; 
 As vacant-minded as the daws 
 
 Are fashion's flunkies. 
 
 She loiters on the promenade, 
 
 Or lolls beneath some myrtle shade, 
 
 Stealing the heart of some young blade 
 
 As green 's her shade is. 
 These grotesque things and thus displayed, 
 
 Are yclept, '-ladies." 
 
 Or 'mid the throng where cat-gut squeals 
 Its dissipating peals on peals. 
 She whirls about on antic heels, 
 
 By midnight tapers. 
 And cuts in polkas, waltzes, reels, 
 
 Her antic capers. 
 
 Thus flutters round the city scrawn, 
 Stuffed effigy of silk and lawn,
 
 TO A BROTHER RHYMER. 55 
 
 How life was smothered in its dawn 
 
 Is melancholy! 
 The native beauties with her born 
 
 Were lost in fully. 
 
 Compare the lassie country bred 
 
 Her easy, firm, poetic tread, 
 
 Her feeling heart and thinking head, 
 
 And finest ken, 
 All worthy to be wooed and wed 
 
 To best of men. 
 
 Give body, brain in balance just, 
 Untaint with falsehood, envy, lust, 
 Replete with constancy and trust 
 
 And virtues steady, 
 And begging goes your gilded crust, 
 
 Your stuif-built lady. 
 
 0. give, Ye Powers! Great Nature's forms 
 Which Life's impassioned current warms, 
 A casket of unfading charms, 
 
 I'll bless the Giver, 
 And clasp the treasure in my arms, 
 
 And love forever. 1850. 
 
 TO A BROTHER RHYMER, O. FULLER. 
 
 My Friend, my much respected Otis 
 Let me intrude upon your notice 
 A word a verse or two of Rhyme, 
 To while away an idle time
 
 56 TUB SUNFLOWER. 
 
 About ourselves and matters here; 
 
 I'll serve them up as they appear 
 
 That is, to me: perchance I'm swayed, 
 
 You know each fancies most his trade; 
 
 Whate'er we do is aptly done, 
 
 Be 't making prayers, or pies, or fun! 
 
 But others haply think reverse, 
 
 And, stead of blessing, deal a curse. 
 
 One calls me captious, or unkind, 
 
 Another, '"heretic," or blind; 
 
 Another, ''bigot. " dolt, or fol 
 
 Fit only for the dunce's stool; 
 
 If others call me villain, knave, 
 
 Vile mammon's, or ambition's slave, 
 
 What of it? Let them gossip on, 
 
 I'll never heed them pro or con. 
 
 But if they say I wrong the truth; 
 
 Or am insensible of ruth; 
 
 Or that I counter run to justice, 
 
 I swear as Heaven High my trust is, 
 
 To throw the gauntlet, join the issue 
 
 And ravel out their lying tissue. 
 
 With God my judge, angels my jury, 
 
 Let them array their hellish fury, 
 
 Appear in forms of fiends or men, 
 
 I'll lace them matched as one to ten 
 
 But hold! where am I and my theme ?- 
 
 My Muse has d<>Zfd me into dream, 
 
 The jade! But I'll set out again, 
 
 And steady her with tenser rein. 
 
 And ''first and foremost ' let me tell 
 
 We all myself and Em are well. 
 
 Yes, Em, my model, darling Em! 
 
 A peerless, undisputed gem 
 
 No gem Golconda ever furnished,
 
 TO A BROTHER RHYMER. 
 
 Immensely richer even unburnished; 
 Her charms are true intrinsic worth, 
 The wealth that Heaven bestows in earth. 
 
 Poets, crackbrained verbal-cobblers. 
 
 Gabble and prate like apes and gobblers, 
 
 Of' sylph like forms and fairy faces, 
 
 Of taper-waists, affected ^ract-s; 
 
 Of neck and brow of ceruse white, 
 
 Neath puff and frizzle, left and right; 
 
 Of smiles as sunbeams, tears as showers 
 
 Of bliss from Eden's dewy bowers; 
 
 Of teeth as of the coral bed 
 
 Where naiads or the mermaids sleep, 
 
 Or as of ivory mammoth shed; 
 
 Of cheeks as roses painted deep, 
 
 Or eyes as stars, or li^s as rubies 
 
 Ho! ye crackbrains. ye are boobies, 
 
 Thus to ransack earth, all nature 
 
 Just to liken human creature! 
 
 Creature with undying soul. 
 
 Earth his cradle, Heaven his goal. 
 
 Your twattle on a theme like this 
 
 Is only silly childishness. 
 
 To be consistent, 1 opine, 
 
 Wisdom bids you draw this line: 
 
 'Discard the human form divine 
 
 At once, and choose with skillful hands, 
 
 The queen of Fashion's artful plans, 
 
 And conjure up of cluy or plaster, 
 
 Of porcelain or alabaster, 
 
 Or paste or putty or of dough, 
 
 A thing, but shape it so and so, 
 
 With puff and splinter, chord and pad 
 
 [Without these any forci is bad ]
 
 58 THE SUNFL WER. 
 
 Borrow tints from limner's brushes" 
 
 (Hark! a whisper gentle hushes, 
 
 Begs my music be admonished 
 
 Lest the gentry be astonished; 
 
 But 'tis truth, and vow, she'll tell it, 
 
 Puddled brimstone tho' she smell it!) 
 
 "Paint upon it shades and flushes, 
 
 Counterfeiting nature's blushes; 
 
 Teeth it with chips of shells and pearls; 
 
 As shift for Juno's merry curls, 
 
 Snatch from mane of Arab steed 
 
 Chestnut tresses as you need, 
 
 Range all items tasty, neat, 
 
 [Call it charming though 'ts a cheat] 
 
 Obscure all nature ever did, 
 
 [What can't be banished can be hid] 
 
 Then dress in keeping with the rest 
 
 [Though '-dressed ' means only semi dressed] 
 
 And o'er the whole tack frills and foolery 
 
 Till grave baboons convulse with drollery, 
 
 And you've a hull/ to your liking, 
 
 With form and gait and features striking: 
 
 A creature worthy of your care, 
 
 Soulless as its makers are!" 
 
 Talk of sunbeams stars and showers, 
 
 Of nectars from Kdenean bowers, 
 
 Of corals from the brackish deep 
 
 Where mermaids and their u\er-beaux sleep 
 
 With trash like these I never name her, 
 
 The likening would but defame her. 
 
 As Sol presides without a peer, 
 
 So she. the winsome, winning t-lf, 
 
 To love and all the virtues dear 
 
 Is like like nothing but herself!
 
 TO A BROTHER RHYMER. 59 
 
 No sun e'er beamed so pure a ray; 
 No fragrant bloom so sweet and gay 
 As Emma's soul of love and truth, 
 Perennial in blooming youth; 
 Shrinking from unholy hands, 
 In its spotless beauty stands; 
 Shuns the path the sordid plod, 
 And grows the image of her God. 
 Her glowing bosom bliss-inspiring, 
 Kindred hearts with rapture firing, 
 Thrills the ardor of her spouse, 
 Wakes anew his youthful vows, 
 Tames the tiger to the dove, 
 With her atmosphere of love. 
 Emma true to life and nature, 
 Loved and Living every creature, 
 From all wayward impulse free, 
 Ne'er forgets propriety; 
 Smooths my pillow, lulls to rest, 
 Sooths niy anguish when oppressed, 
 Calms my passions when they rise, 
 Points me to our native skies; 
 Meekly Heaven's aid imploring, 
 First cur God, then me, adoring. 
 Is she not a treasure say ? 
 If not, where is one I pray? 
 
 What more, you ask, could Heaven bestow 
 To gladden our estate below, 
 And make our pathway smoother run, 
 Towards our goal life's setting sun? 
 
 We own our blessings, own our bliss, 
 Exchange the uriforbidden ki.-s; 
 Our conjugal communion sweet
 
 60 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 Wants one thing more to be complete. 
 
 Strangers look in and call us blessed, 
 
 Declare us happier than the rest. 
 
 But where's the "chit" to lisp our name, 
 
 And fan the phil'progenic flame? 
 
 Yes, where the ''toddlin wee things" where, 
 
 To while away domestic care; 
 
 To dandle on the parent knee. 
 
 And win them with their guileless glee? 
 
 Those plants that bud in life's bright spring, 
 
 And round the parent branches cling, 
 
 To glad them, as in opening }outh, 
 
 Their minds unfold in love and truth; 
 
 Their cares increasing to assuage, 
 
 And guard their steps in drooping age. 
 
 Nature designed a stately son 
 
 A staff for age to lean upon. 
 
 But childless ones their P. M course, 
 
 Decrepit plod, with 'bating force; 
 
 Burdens increase as strength decays; 
 
 Forgot by friends of other days: 
 
 Thus through their lonely, long downhill 
 
 They weary totter, totter still. 
 
 Oh, friend, I'm at a goal arrived, 
 Befooled, batnb ioz ed. wheedled, gyved; 
 A goal I never started for. 
 I aimed as much at a Punic war 
 My teasing Muse has run me hazy, 
 Or tantalized me blue or crazy. 
 But never mind it! if I die for 't, 
 I just as well may hugh as cry for 't. 
 And here I east my quill one side, 
 And let the muse and fully slide,
 
 BLOOMERS. 61 
 
 Lest something worse mayhap befall me, 
 Or simpleton you justly call me. 
 But deem me, 
 
 Yours, through smile or frown, 
 Till my old vital clock runs down. 
 
 APRIL 6th, 1851. 
 
 BLOOMERS. 
 
 'TO UNIVERSAL GIRLDOM." 
 
 Come girls, don the Bloomers, 
 
 That model attire, 
 So jimp, so convenient, 
 
 I look to admire! 
 
 So modest, so tidy, so tasty and trim, 
 So fitly adapted to person and limb. 
 
 The dress for the concert, 
 
 The visit, the call, 
 The church, or the party, 
 The wedding, the ball, 
 
 The journey, the country, the city, the ville, 
 Becoming the woman go whither she will. 
 
 No burden of dry goods 
 
 A load for a ship, 
 Hung fantastic over 
 
 And trailing from hip 
 
 And brushing the army of brogans they meet, 
 And sweeping the sullage of sidewalk and street. 
 
 No tripping of suitors" 
 At dances or fairs.
 
 No treading on dresses 
 
 In skipping up stairs, 
 No hazard of gathers, of flounces or tacks, 
 Exposure or tangle in mounting the hacks. 
 
 The girls in their Bloomers 
 
 Can caper and run, 
 A match for the ''fellows" 
 
 In frolic and fun ; 
 
 Can fleet through a thicket, scale mountain and ledge, 
 Chase game o'er the prairie, or vault o'er a hedge. 
 
 Let silly ones rally 
 
 And bluff you with sneers, 
 What matter their ranting 
 And flouting and jeers? 
 
 Their clacking is harmless, and stupid their jibe, 
 Society buzzards detestable tribe! 
 
 Beshrew the vile bnddice! 
 
 Why longer be slaves 
 To Fashion, that goddess, 
 
 The quean of the knaves? 
 
 Spurn lacing and padding, those tricks of the gump, 
 Let waist "slim and taper" be normal and plump. 
 
 God never put bnddice, 
 Or splinter and string 
 On robins and linnets, 
 
 And bade them to sing; 
 His fashion is freedom of muscles and lungs, 
 And harmony tempers their musical tongues. 
 
 ('Twould be as judicious 
 
 To rig up the tongs 
 In dangling dresses 
 
 To tangle the prongs,
 
 TOBACCO CHEWING PARSON. 63 
 
 Then press them to serve about fireplace or stove, 
 How labored their action ! how awkward they move!) 
 
 God never rigged rabbits 
 And fawns of the wood 
 In draggling habits 
 
 To trail in the rnud; 
 
 But wrapped them in vesture so simple and fair, 
 To gambol and frolic as free as the air. 
 
 The lasses of Eden, 
 
 The Uouris, are dressed 
 In Bloomers befittii g 
 
 That land of the blessed, 
 
 Their swains in love-making seem ravished with bliss, 
 To see them in costume so charming as this. 
 
 So doff the old prisons, 
 Nor don them again, 
 That bring to the living 
 
 Death, trouble and pain ! 
 Put on the new 'part-1 so natty and warm, 
 Both shelter and shadow in sunshine and storm. 
 
 February 20th, 1852. 
 
 OUR TOBACCO CHEWING PARSON. 
 
 Our Parson tells us of a "Holy Ghost," 
 
 [Its meaning puzzles louts like us to ferret], 
 
 Applauding it with many a pious toast, 
 
 A thing of glorious, transcendent merit, 
 
 And no doubt pure! for so he bold proclaims it
 
 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 In pulpit, with a cheek distended wide 
 
 With that inspiring morsel, "quid," he calls it, 
 
 Of the narcotic weed that some kill lice with, 
 
 And not an angel ever could be nice with, 
 
 Nor any art or subterfuge can hide: 
 
 His mumbling tongue splutters in the juice 
 
 Till dikes comply, and spurts the stinking sluice! 
 
 If Ghost keeps Holy coming such a way, 
 
 Nothing can foul it, come through what it may ! 
 
 BIPED TOBACCO WORMS. 
 
 Oh, Tobacco- 
 Vile Tobacco 
 
 Oh, the nerve-searing weed! 
 Eat or drink it 
 Who would think it 
 
 Ever make it human feed! 
 The exotic 
 Narcotic 
 
 From barbarous Yucatan, 
 Savage folly 
 Melancholy ! 
 
 Saddled sorely on man. 
 
 Chorus: Oh, I pity, 
 
 Pity, pity 
 
 Oh, Tobacco's poor slave! 
 He is drunken, 
 He is sunken, 
 Now no more the free, brave:
 
 BIPED TOBACCO WORMS. 65 
 
 How depraving, 
 
 Ever-slaving, 
 Is his craving who can tell? 
 
 Oh, it thralls him, 
 
 Oh, it palls him, 
 Oh, he's cravened with the spell! 
 
 Oh, his chawing, 
 
 Chawing, chawing, 
 Drivel drawing from his cud; 
 
 Oh. his spitting, 
 
 Spitting, spitting, 
 Miss or hitting with his flood! 
 
 Oh. his puffing, 
 
 Puffing, puffin yr, 
 Cheeks a fuffing with the fume! 
 
 Lord deliver 
 
 Me forever 
 From his breath and sputtered spume! 
 
 Oh, their "dipping," 
 
 Women dipping, 
 Dribble dripping Maccaboy; 
 
 Nasty uring, 
 
 Past enduring 
 Only luring to destroy! 
 
 Lapping, dusting 
 
 How disgusting 
 Is this lusting from the South! 
 
 Fusty blisses 
 
 Are the kisses 
 Of the Miss' dirty mouth? 
 
 Oh, the snuffing, 
 Snuffing, snuffing
 
 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 "Rappee" stuffing in the head: 
 Nose a dust hole, 
 And the worst hole 
 
 But that curs'd hole, Pluto's shade! 
 So they snuff it, 
 Chaw and puff it, 
 
 Spit and blurt it here and there, 
 Till we fear us, 
 Lest they near us 
 
 And besmear us with a share. 
 
 Priestly Religion 's but a brilliant toy 
 Mere Fashion's plaything, witlings to decoy, 
 And idle maudlin folly to enjoy. 
 
 WHO IS THE MURDERED WIFE? 
 
 Not she who meets the assassin's stroke 
 
 Of pistol, bludgeon or knife; 
 Nor who on the racking wheel is broke 
 
 Not she is the murdered wife. 
 
 Not she who flung on the Bramin's pyre, 
 
 Or sinks in the battle's strife, 
 Or hans to appease the law's dread ire 
 
 Not she is the murdered wife. 
 
 Not she who, mad with the Lethean draught 
 Or perfidy stung out of life;
 
 Or slain by the red-man's venomed shaft- 
 Not she is the murdered wife. 
 
 But she who, ruled by him who sways 
 The law, the purse and the sword, 
 
 In murderous dread the beck obeys 
 Of him the law made her lord: 
 
 She who endures the angry tongue, 
 And pales in the raging grip, 
 
 Her tender soul more keenly stung 
 By the scorn of the curling lip. 
 
 Who meets the assault of the fiery eye, 
 And suffers the weight of blows; 
 
 Hears words that human soul deny 
 And fiendish soul disclose. 
 
 'Tis she who cares and suffers and toils 
 
 In a home of endless strife, 
 A pittance scant her only spoils, 
 
 She, she is the murdered wife! 
 
 Thus all the tendrils that would twine, 
 
 And senses to chime in tune, 
 All blighted as the tender vine 
 
 Is bitten by frost in June. 
 
 So custom and law have fixed her sphere, 
 And doomed her to abject life! 
 
 And where is endured lot half so drear 
 As this, the slow-murdered wife?
 
 68 THE SUNFL WER. 
 
 THE OLD WIFE AND THE NEW. 
 
 The old wife toiled in the kitchen, 
 
 A slave to her family care: 
 The new wife is served by domestics, 
 
 And rocks in her parlor chair. 
 
 The old wife brought all the water, 
 Even cut_her own wood at the door: 
 
 The new one reclines on her sofa, 
 Scarce setting her foot to the floor. 
 
 The old wife was cook, to be chided 
 
 And faulted for every dish: 
 The new one is petted and feasted 
 
 And cherished in every wish. 
 
 The old wife so patiently struggled, 
 
 Though wants and desires were denied; 
 
 The new is regaled with her novels, 
 And courted to visit and ride. 
 
 The old wife schemed for a garment 
 
 In which to be decently seen : 
 The new one is robed in apparel 
 
 Befitting a Duchess or Queen. 
 
 The old wife was 'bashed with vile language, 
 
 So shocking to delicate ear: 
 The new is most kindly and softly 
 
 Addressed as ' - My Dearest Dear." 
 
 Thus the old wife was labored and jaded 
 And pushed to a premature grave : 
 
 While the new is an idle consumer 
 Of all that her pleasure can crave.
 
 THE WOMAN. 69 
 
 THE WOMAN. 
 
 A clothes-horse to labor 
 And tug, 
 
 The Juggernaut Fashion 
 To lug. 
 Alas for the women 
 
 Whom fashion depraves 
 One sex of the human 
 Fit only for slaves! 
 
 She toys with her beauty 
 
 And birth, 
 And sports with her duty 
 
 And worth; 
 Devoted to Fashion 
 
 And chained in her team, 
 'Tis the impulse and passion 
 Of the woman's life-dream! 
 
 At the nod of opinion 
 
 She falls 
 A pitiful minion, 
 
 And crawls,- 
 A mind so enslaven' 
 Contented to be 
 A spirit so craven 
 How can it be free! 
 
 0, Sol ! Hide thy glories 
 In weeds, 
 
 And night will envelop 
 
 Her deeds.
 
 70 THE SUNFL WER. 
 
 0, Luna, fair Luna, 
 Deep shadow thy face, 
 
 For the lapse of thy sisters, 
 Thy sex's disgrace! 
 
 0, ye stars droop your eyelids 
 
 And weep, 
 Till embosomed in Lethe 
 
 Ye sleep, 
 For the weakness of woman 
 
 Who folly thus craves, 
 One sex of the human 
 Fit only for slaves! 
 
 THE GUARDIAN. 
 
 THE UNITED SEVEN. 
 
 "Take me to thy heart!" said a timid young maid, 
 
 A deep mantled blush on her cheek, 
 In manner so modest, so sweetly afraid, 
 
 That she startled to hear herself speak. 
 Proportions so peerless no creature could show, 
 
 To heighten would more than complete; 
 Her countenance lit with such angelic glow, 
 
 Enravished, I fell at her feet: 
 
 So enchantingly pure this spirituous flower. 
 
 So timidly shrinking from touch, 
 I called her Divine! 0, Omnipotent Power! 
 
 Was T faulty for deeming her such! 
 I paused: and anon a presence appeared; 
 
 I listened to what it would say :
 
 THE GUARDIAN. 71 
 
 It bid me "embrace the enchantress T heard, 
 And walk in her life-cheering way!" 
 
 "This nymph is Young Innocence blending 
 
 With Modesty, Purity, Truth 
 And Virtue and Love, and are lending 
 
 To Beauty its undying Youth. 
 
 "Take her to thy bosom and cherish, 
 
 Nor suffer her more to depart ; 
 She comes to enlighten and nourish, 
 
 To soothe and to gladden the heart; 
 Embrace her, her sweets are supernal 
 
 And wake not a blush or a tear, 
 Embrace, for her charms are eternal 
 
 And bloom through an undying year. 
 
 "She may drink of the bubbling fountain; 
 
 Or lave in the bright purling rill, 
 Or sniff the wild breeze of the mountain, 
 
 Or laugh with sunshine on the hill; 
 She may ramble in woodland or meadow, 
 
 Or regale in the shade at her ease; 
 She may cull fresh flowers of the prairie, 
 
 Or the bloom that o'erspangles the trees. 
 
 "The beasts of the field shall befriend her, 
 
 And the birds warble carols of bliss, 
 The eagle his pinions shall lend her, 
 
 And the dove give her welcoming kiss. 
 The pole shall provide her with ermine, 
 
 And Afric present her a plume, 
 Pearls shall be the gift of old Ocean, 
 
 And the Indies will waft their perfume.
 
 72 THE SUNFL WER. 
 
 "And when this earth ceases revolving 
 
 And swings from its balancing pole, 
 Creation in dotage dissolving, 
 
 And the heavens rolled up as a scroll, 
 Then the stars shall be gathered as jewels 
 
 To circle her glorious neck, 
 And the sun as a gem will be chosen 
 
 Her hallowed bosom to deck." 
 
 TO ELLA.. 
 
 As thirsty noon-beams panting peer 
 
 Through blooming foliage to the pool, 
 To slake their drouth in waters-clear 
 
 That soft repose in bower so cool, 
 So pants my thirsting soul to grasp 
 
 Thee, matchless Ella, empress charms !- 
 And to my aching bosom clasp 
 
 Thy spotless image in niy arms. 
 
 No marring pencil ever traced 
 
 One line upon thy form so fair; 
 Nor was one beauty e'er effaced, 
 
 But all are fresh and blooming there. 
 Just so, the beauties of thy mind 
 
 Shine out in all their native love 
 Truth, Virtue, Purity, combined, 
 
 Begotten in the realm above.
 
 THIS AGE. 73 
 
 Wilt not thou, Sweet One, deign one smile 
 
 To soothe this burning heart of mine 
 To snatch me from this drear exile, 
 
 Where all within can only pine? 
 One beck from thee would cheat the grave, 
 
 And save me from its dread embrace; 
 Nought but thy magic power can save 
 
 The hopeless wretch that seeks thy grace. 
 
 THIS AGE. 
 
 This Age is an age of progression, 
 
 The people go crazed on improvement; 
 
 Staid ones are leaving time-honored professions 
 
 To grab for some newly-born movement. 
 
 All things beyond yesterday, stupid and stale; 
 
 No speed short of U 60 per hour on the rail !" 
 
 Time was when they practiced good will toward others, 
 And argued that all men should mingle as brothers, 
 And treat with affection wives, sisters and mothers, 
 But these shallow graces are banished the schools. 
 In chant, or in anthem. Who'd tune it or time it! 
 In song, or in sonnet, Who'd rhythm or rhyme it! 
 The sweet melophene, Who'd tone it or chime it! 
 These items are trifles, the small work of fools. 
 
 In the rules of the age, what contrivers or planners 
 Would think of instilling good morals or manners; 
 Or wish for sweet Pi-act; to oYrhover their banners, 
 Since a prayer is valued far k-ss than an oath !
 
 74 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 \ 
 
 For the feelings and pleasures of others uncaring, 
 Their common palaver is swa<jgerin<.", swearing; 
 Harpstrings of the social thus wantonly tearing, 
 Begins with the bantling and grows with his growth. 
 
 "So clamor these ranters, that woman is equal 
 
 Of man ! In soothing their ardor determine to speak 
 
 well 
 
 Of nothing that is, but we'll show in the sequel 
 That woman nov: fills her appropriate place: 
 Just cast back the glance to remote misty ages, 
 And trace her relation down history's pages, 
 Acknowledged by doctors, priests, poets and sages, 
 She's but an append to the masculine race." 
 
 Who'd be so insane as to set obligation, 
 
 Except the acknowledged one, "consideration!" 
 
 Every man is a sovereign a masterly nation ! 
 
 With manifest destiny wide as the earth. 
 
 Enlightened Benevolence now is a bubble 
 
 And Justice and Mercy not worth half their trouble: 
 
 The Money Machine is the only thing noble 
 
 The only creation deserving a birth. 
 
 The Democrat boor turns jobber and banker 
 Nabob of the a<re; his better though lanker, 
 Adown at his heels, and minus a spanker, 
 The Slave digs his Master's per cent from the soil. 
 'Tis Democrat justice : rich power may revel 
 In wealth, while the serf finds his plebeian level, 
 Forked over at last to the dogs or the devil, 
 Or the dirt where his hands were so ured to toil. 
 
 February, 1855.
 
 THE SLEEP Y BABY. 75 
 
 THE SLEEPY BABY.* 
 
 Sat a doating mother, mild, 
 In her lap a little child ; 
 Never sweeter cherub smiled 
 
 In the land of bliss: 
 Eyes of finer light and blue 
 Never met fond mother's view 
 Telling of the good and true 
 
 Than were seen in this. 
 
 Charming chubby eight months old, 
 Every day new leads unfold 
 Richer than Australian gold; 
 
 In the mother's eye, 
 One such brilliant does out-shine 
 Sun, and moon, and stars divine, 
 Though they interblend infine 
 
 Through the o'erbeuding sky. 
 
 Soon the baby tires of play, 
 Flings his playthings all away, 
 Becks the sleepy baby's Fay, 
 
 Falls on mother's breast, 
 Cuddles puling in the lap 
 licstlcss for his wonted nap 
 Takes his anodyne, the pap, 
 
 Sinks to quiet rest. 
 
 In that Lethe of repose, 
 Every ill the bahy knows 
 Fades like dewdrop from the rose. 
 Blessed, balmy sleep! 
 
 *Albert II. Sears (adopted).
 
 76 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 Sleep on, darling sleep, sleep on, 
 Angels wait thy rest upon; 
 Mamma breathes her orison 
 From her bosom's deep. 
 
 PLANO, Ills., February 1st, 1857. 
 
 THE SUPREME. 
 
 0, Thou Supreme, Creative Law! 
 
 [Whence minor laws their force, and mode, 
 And wondrous skill and wisdom draw], 
 
 Thee I adore and call Thee GOD. 
 
 The loves in human souls that shine 
 Abloom in such communion sweet, 
 
 Particles are of Thee, Divine, 
 
 And pay to Thee their homage meet. 
 
 The fruits of plant and shrub and tree, 
 Bespeak Thy Wisdom, Goodness, Love, 
 
 Recall my truant thoughts towards Thee, 
 And woo me toward the life above. 
 
 The tiny flowers whose peering eyes 
 Up glint from out the virgin sod, 
 
 Whisper and smile 'neath sun and skies, 
 Sweet incense to their parent, God. 
 
 The birds that tune their mellow throats 
 
 To Nature's matchless cadences, 
 Tune but to Thee their richest notes, 
 
 Their purest, deepest symphonies.
 
 THE SUPREME. 77 
 
 Each flinty leaf and bone and shell 
 
 Embalmed in stone from dateless yore, 
 
 Of Thee a wondrous tale does tell 
 Of countless cycles gone before. 
 
 No fragrance of the scented rose; 
 No dewdrop in the lily's cell; 
 No fountain from the ledge that flows; 
 No streamlet dancing through the dell; 
 No wave of ocean's pulsing tide; 
 No pebble on the shining shore; 
 No mountain high; no prairie wide; 
 No drifting snow; no cascade's roar; 
 No prismed bow; no vernal shower; 
 No tempest fell; no thunder's crash; 
 No earthquake's heave; no whirlwind's power; 
 No beaming star; no lightning's flash; 
 No forest green; no barren sand; 
 No beetling cliff"; no grassy s.id, 
 But owns its source, Thy forming hand, 
 Owns Thee Creator, owns Thee God! 
 
 'Tis thus from out All Nature's Heart, 
 
 Spontaneous adoration springs, 
 Warms and illumes each sentient part, 
 
 And Life respondent ceaseless sings. 
 
 March 4th, 1863.
 
 78 THE SUNFL WER. 
 
 'BE TRUE TO THYSELF.' 
 
 Be true to thyself though a maxim unwrit 
 In the statutes and laws and traditions of old; 
 
 Though a gem in old Tyranny's crown never set, 
 'Tis a jewel more precious than silver or gold. 
 
 "Be true to thyself," ever bubbles the fountain; 
 
 Gushing and sparkling and rollicking free, 
 Born of the granites and sands of the mountain, 
 
 And hieing to rest in the deep-bosomed sea. 
 
 "Be true to thyself," sighs the dark gleaming river, 
 With historic story from ages the firct, 
 
 As it shimmers along its green valleys forever, 
 To sooth the old sea-god's unquenchable thirst. 
 
 "Be true to thyself," booms the turbulent ocean, 
 Dashing its surges upon the lee shore, 
 
 [Old Neptune's life pulses in angry commotion], 
 Or hushing their breakers to lullaby roar. 
 
 "Be true to thyself," the petrel is crying, 
 Sweeping aloft through the hurricane's rave, 
 
 Queen of the scene where the tempest is flying, 
 Braving alike the tornado and wave. 
 
 "Be true to thyself," the eagle is screaming; 
 
 "Be true to thyself," the grim lion roars; 
 "Be true to thyself," the swallow is streaming, 
 
 And the thrush in the bush her re-echoing pours.
 
 4 SE TRUE TO THYSELF." 79 
 
 "Be true to thyself," the tiny bee humming; 
 
 "Be true to thyself," loud rallies the lark; 
 "Be true to thyself," the partridge is drumming, 
 
 And approving, the firefly kindles her spark. 
 
 "Be true to thyself," the gay peacock clamors; 
 
 "Be true to thyst-lf," the guinea-hen chimes; 
 "Be true to thyself," the woodpecker hammers, 
 
 "Be true to thy nature, relations and times!" 
 
 "Be true to thyself," is a maxim of Love, 
 Imblending itself with each sensitive force; 
 
 The wisdom of ages and light from above, 
 
 All Nature's prime mover and God for its source. 
 
 "Be true to thyself," is the maxim of God, 
 With the promise of final fruition replete, 
 
 As well of the Heaven where man never trod, 
 As of dark earth material under his feet. 
 
 June, 1863. 
 
 'COME TO THE CONCERT?' 
 
 The church bell is dinging 
 
 Its clangor and moan, 
 A-swinging and singing 
 
 In solo alone ; 
 Out-ringing and flinging 
 
 Its grave monotone 
 In call to the concert: 
 CHORUS : "Come to the concert, 
 
 Come to the concert, come?"
 
 80 THE SUNFL WER. 
 
 The redbreast is pouring 
 
 A matin so sweet, 
 The echoes encoring, 
 
 The warbles repeat; 
 Devotion adoring 
 
 Confesses the treat, 
 And hies to the concert: 
 
 'Come to the concert/' &c. 
 
 The thrush on the apple 
 
 In high pressure steam 
 Is dashing the orchard 
 
 With rollicking stream 
 A roistering river 
 
 Of musical ream . 
 That bids to the concert: 
 
 "Come to the concert," &c. 
 
 The lark in the meadow 
 
 At gloaming of day 
 Inditing responses 
 
 In emulous lay, 
 In cadence so mellow 
 
 That seemeth to say: 
 "Come all to the concert!" 
 
 "Come to the concert," &c. 
 
 . (IN WINTER). 
 
 The beautiful snow 
 
 Is merry with song, 
 A-lifting and sifting 
 
 And shifting; along
 
 COME TO THE CONCERT. 81 
 
 Like musical manna, 
 
 Inviting the throng 
 To glide to the concert. 
 
 "Come to the concert," &c. 
 
 The dainty wind skimmers 
 
 The crystalized steaui, 
 The reefy snow t-himmers; 
 
 The shiny tracks gleam; 
 The stars' idle glimmers 
 
 Melodious seem 
 Of mystical concert: 
 
 "Come to the concert," &c. 
 
 The sleigh bells are rhyming 
 
 Their musical mode; 
 The creaking sleighs chiming 
 
 Beneath the gay lo;id, 
 The prancing steed timing 
 
 Their pace on the road 
 In speed to the concert: 
 
 "Come to the concert," &c. 
 
 All Nature it quaffing 
 
 The musical bowl, 
 This life of the spirit 
 
 And food of the soul : 
 The angels with music 
 
 I {cgale and console, 
 United in concert: 
 
 "Come to the concert," &o. 
 
 In music our kindred 
 
 Stoop down from the skies,
 
 82 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 In during affection 
 
 Of unbroken ties, 
 To wake aspirations, 
 
 And pray us to rise 
 To heavenly concert: 
 
 "Come to the concert," &c. 
 
 1865. 
 
 WELCOME TO OUR RETURNING SOLDIERS. 
 
 Companies "F" and "K," One Hundred and Twenty-seventh 
 Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry. This regiment went 
 through to the coast with Sherman. The boys returned here 
 the nth of June, 1865, and were welcomed to a dinner in the 
 grove at L. Steward's. This piece was got up for that occasion, 
 and was read there. 
 
 Hail to the Heroes we welcome to-day, 
 
 Back to our tables, our hearts, and our homes! 
 
 Clear ye the track for the gallant array; 
 
 Unfurl your banners and rattle your drums! 
 
 Welcome our Heroes with laurels o'erhung, 
 Earned in the conflicts of felaughter and blood, 
 
 Where from the Rebels the conquest they wrung; 
 And proud in his glory each Patriot stood. 
 
 Called by his country in peril and need; 
 
 Proud to be marshalled beneath the Old Stars; 
 Ready to follow where Sherman would lead, 
 
 Crushing rebellion and trampling its ''bars:"
 
 WELCOME RETURNING SOLDIERS. 
 
 83 
 
 Heroes of Chickasaw, Arkansaw Post, 
 
 Mission Ridge, Vicksburg, Champion Hill, 
 
 Jonesborough, Atlanta and on to the coast 
 The invisible Phalanx marched conquerors still. 
 
 i These are our fathers and brothers and sons, 
 
 Grimed with exp>sure and labor and sweat; 
 Scarred with torpedos and sabres and guns, 
 Scenes and privations they'll never forget. 
 
 Ye children, and mothers, and sisters, and wives, 
 Who've waited their absence in sadness so long, 
 
 And dreamed of the perils that threatened their lives, 
 Nor smiled at a banquet, nor joined in a song, 
 
 Come now to this feast, for your grieving is past 
 The sun of your sorrow forever is set 
 
 The bliss of reunion comes greeting at last, 
 And the kiss of affection is given and met. 
 
 Fond mother! again hug your boy to your heart; 
 
 Here end your dark bodings and w Etchings and fears: 
 Dire war will compel you more never to part 
 
 Come bathe him in kisses and wash him in tears? 
 
 Not the tears that you shed on him three years ago, 
 When the war-dogs were howling so fierce on our 
 track; 
 
 And our sky seemed o'erdraped with a mantle of woe, 
 Nor Hope dared to whisper and promise him back; 
 
 But the tears of affection now pleasure-distilled 
 From a bosom so full that without them 'twould 
 burst! 
 
 Thanks to High Heaven his blood was not spilled, 
 And his corse left to min<rle the battlefield's dust!
 
 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 Here one pang embitters the cup of our sweet, 
 
 When we think of the comrades who can not return; 
 
 Slain by the insurgent foes they did meet, 
 
 And the wiid plains of Dixie their relics inurn ! 
 
 But praise to the Power who has favored our case, 
 And wrought for the right in the violent fray, 
 
 Though in purging our Nation, her Charters and Laws, 
 He washed in our bloud her transgressions away! 
 
 We feel the chastising and bow to the rod, 
 And pray the atoning baptism may ceas^e? 
 
 And Mercy and Wisdom and Goodness of God, 
 May crown us a union of Justice and Peace! 
 
 Then hail to the Heroes we welcome to-day, 
 Back to our tables, our hearts, and our homes! 
 
 Clear ye the track for the gallant array 
 Unfurl your banners and rattle your drums! 
 
 PLAN-O, Illinois, June 17th, 1865. 
 
 EPIC OF MADAM GRUNDY. 
 [FRANK ARDOUR AND JENNIE FLY.] 
 
 Frank was a frolicking, 
 Roistering, rolllicking, 
 
 Mischievous lad; 
 Some years a minor, 
 
 Not essentially bad, 
 Nor a bit of a whiner. 
 
 A juvenile nation
 
 EPIC OF MADAM GRUND7. 85 
 
 Inspired him to launch 
 His young perogue staunch 
 
 Out on life's ocean. 
 And wanting a wife, 
 
 Or something akin to it, 
 To sweeten his life, 
 
 Eager plunged into it 
 With heedless devotion. 
 
 In the bevy of girls, 
 The prides of their mothers, 
 
 So merry and many, 
 
 He found never any 
 To equal one Jennie 
 
 The Queen of the group. 
 Her dentals so pearly, 
 And ringlets so curly, 
 Her dimples and blushes 
 And fadings and flushes, 
 
 Eclipsed all the others; 
 Were others divine, 
 
 She was diviner; 
 Who essayed to shine, 
 
 She would outshine her 
 O'er-match the whole troop 
 
 With her arts and her flashes, 
 
 Her top-knots and lashes 
 
 And dallying tresses; 
 
 Her luscious caresses 
 
 And deep clinging kisses 
 
 So earnest of blis 
 
 Beyond, did him rapture, 
 
 Completing his capture 
 In the mystical loop.
 
 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 Now Jennie's mamma 
 
 Was a watchful old bruin, 
 Proud and ambitious, 
 Shrewd and suspicious, 
 Scheming and zealous, 
 Artful and jealous, 
 [So gossip does tell us, 
 
 And prudence presumes,] 
 Lest her daughter should ruin 
 
 By luckless /rnw-^f/s, 
 Her fair maiden fame, 
 Or the family name, 
 By singeing her plumes 
 In the amorous flame. 
 
 Here Frank was encroaching 
 The family laws; 
 
 Too eager to loo 
 He damaged his cause 
 Was reckless and rash, 
 Deserving the lash 
 Or a merited snub. 
 
 'Twas peril >us poaching; 
 Few striplings would dare 
 To rifle the cub. 
 And the petted one too, 
 Of such arch mother bear. 
 
 Had the shaver but waited 
 
 And planned the affair, 
 And as he grew older 
 As wiser grown bolder, 
 Peering over her shoulder 
 He might have cajoled her, 
 In honey words told her 
 He came but to woo, 
 
 He might have been mated
 
 EPIC OF MADAM GRUNDY. 87 
 
 With little ado, 
 
 And saved the old bruin 
 
 The chafing and tear 
 Of the passion she flew in. 
 
 But Frank was a "brick," 
 
 Foxy and plucky 
 In whatever trick 
 
 Would "turn him up" lucky. 
 
 All the while a young demon 
 
 Was artfully fixing 
 A mystical potion 
 "With su^ar and cream" on, 
 For Jennie and Frank; 
 They tasted the notion 
 
 And relished the mixing, 
 And freely they drank. 
 
 Young Hymen came by 
 All dressed for a wedding, 
 A bright halo shedding 
 On every one present 
 Wherever he went, 
 And paused just asunder. 
 
 With a teur in his eye, 
 In querying wonder 
 And tremors unpleasant, 
 
 Lest Jennie should swallow, 
 Without his consent, 
 Or a place to repent, 
 The teeming elixir 
 The demon did mix her, 
 And what too would follow. 
 
 The die too soon cast,
 
 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 She drained off the goblet; 
 The rubicon passed, 
 She found it a job let 
 
 To end by and by, 
 In flurry and worry 
 And skurry and hurry, 
 And trundlings and bundlings. 
 And doctors and nurses 
 And like needful fusses, 
 Like all blunder ''busses," 
 
 And a great hue and cry. 
 
 At seeing her falter. 
 Was Hymen to blame 
 To proffer his name 
 To ward off the scandal 
 And cover her shame, 
 And her virtuous candle 
 
 Re-light at his Altar . 
 With immaculate flame? 
 
 Sly Cupid stole Jennie, 
 So reckons repute ; 
 (A trick most uncanny,) 
 Yet nobody known it, 
 Nor will she disclose it 
 Except in the fruit 
 She brought as a witness 
 Attesting her fitness 
 For runaway match 
 Including the hatch 
 Of the conjugal batch. 
 
 I said Cupid stole her: 
 No odds how he got her,
 
 EPIC OF MADAM GRUNDY. 89 
 
 He now may control her, 
 
 Since Hymen has sought her 
 
 And in partnership brought her; 
 
 Angelic consoler 
 
 Of maculate daughter, 
 
 To save her at least 
 
 From pending disaster,' 
 
 He spread her his plaster 
 
 Put on by the Priest. 
 
 So Frank got his Jennie, 
 
 And also his baby; 
 Such things oft have been, 
 
 And often too, may be. 
 But the flashing and lashing 
 And gnashing and dashing, 
 The eyes' fiery glare 
 Of raving despair 
 Of this mother bruin 
 Foaming in wrath 
 For the young rascal's ruin 
 If he cauie in her path! 
 
 Ma'm Grundy "Knows Cupid 
 
 Committed the rape, 
 
 Just like him!" So oft 
 
 He'd exposed her in shape 
 
 Derisive. some sober, 
 
 Or shabby, or stupid, 
 
 Or laughable scrape, 
 
 When he took him a cue 
 
 To "raid" and unrobe her, 
 
 And lift her aloft. 
 
 For rustics to view 
 
 That she swore "he should never-
 
 90 
 
 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 The pestering rake 
 Be free in her realm, 
 While she held the lever 
 That governs the helm!" 
 So her agencies clever 
 With faithful endeavor, 
 Pursue him and take him 
 And halter and snake him 
 
 To the marge of that lake, 
 The sulphurous puddle 
 Where old sinners huddle, 
 And young babies cuddle, 
 
 For Mercy's dear sake, 
 
 Atoning for sin : 
 Then Madam does take him 
 And o'er the coals rake him, 
 And seethe him and boil him 
 And blister and broil him 
 And fry him and roast him 
 And scorch him and toast him. 
 And crisp him and bake him 
 And then pitch him in 
 
 To that pious baptism. 
 Here end .the love-labors 
 Of her and her neighbors, 
 
 And devils' begin ; 
 In that brimstone boiling 
 They are vicing and toiling, 
 Anointing his stains, 
 And scalding his blains 
 
 In their sulphurous chrysm, 
 And basting it in ! 
 
 Let me say to all parties 
 Whose the pleasure or smart is,
 
 EPIG OF MADAM GRUND7. 91 
 
 Whose the blessings or ills; 
 Just mingle and season, 
 Cook and eat your own hash, 
 [For this is but reason,] 
 And foot your own bills 
 Both of conscience and cash, 
 And quiet your clash ! 
 
 CANTO II. 
 
 Far away was her Frank 
 With the brave Volunteers; 
 Though a stripling in years 
 He in ' Staff" held his rank. 
 
 Meanwhile Jennie came 
 With her Corydon's name, 
 Meekly repenting, 
 
 Home to her mother, 
 
 Saying she'd brought her 
 Her primal grand-daughter, 
 And prayed to be taken 
 Like any forsaken, 
 
 To sister and brother 
 And father and home, 
 Thence no more to roam. 
 The matron relenting, 
 With a tear in her eye, 
 And a motherly sigh, 
 Embraced her and kissed her 
 Solaced her and blessed her 
 With welcoming grace, 
 And gave her her place 
 In the family fry.
 
 92 THE SUNFL WER. 
 
 Now here was condition 
 For ample fruition ; 
 A fancy position 
 To fill her ambition ; 
 Nice gallant young men 
 Both wedded and single, 
 To flirt with and mingle 
 And dangle and jingle 
 As pleased her and when. 
 
 Sheltered by night, 
 
 Or screened by a curtain, 
 "Where is the hurt in 
 A perch on the lap 
 Of a darling dear fellow, 
 Or a comforting nap 
 On his sociable pillow ? 
 
 He 's such a delight!" 
 And aids her so much 
 With his magical touch, 
 In lifting the weeds 
 That weigh the "grass" widow 
 Like fogs on the meadow, 
 And soothing her needs. 
 
 These all take a part in 
 The sparkling bicker 
 Of coquetting liquor 
 She's steeping her heart in; 
 But 'tis only the froth 
 That floats on the broth 
 Of her conjugal stew, 
 Flung off in flirtation 
 To save palpitation; 
 New-plighting her troth
 
 EPIC OF MADAM GRUND7. 93 
 
 By this free ventilation, 
 Her virtues grow purer, 
 And constancy surer, 
 
 Her love the more true 
 To her bold soldier laddie 
 Off south in the fight, 
 Her sweet baby's daddy 
 No character paddy 
 With honor all bright. 
 
 How Frank will rejoice, 
 
 Where'er he may roam 
 When Jennie's sweet voice 
 Or pencil or pen, 
 
 Tells him her story ! 
 
 With barely the mention 
 How these gentle-men 
 With chastest attention 
 To modish convention, 
 Have cherished his waif i 
 
 He will give them great glory 
 For preserving so safe 
 His dear jewels at home. 
 
 CANTO III. 
 
 A very Ma'in Modish, 
 By every assent 
 Of rowdy or gent, 
 Or retinue toadish, 
 Was Jennie a belle: 
 And the virtuous vent 
 Of her modest intent 
 Was all that was meant 
 By her arrogant swell.
 
 94 
 
 THE SUNFL WER. 
 
 With waist a la sausage 
 A single strait passage; 
 Tight-bellied, big-bustled, 
 Then over all rustled 
 And swelled uiore'n a barrel, 
 [No common apparel,] 
 The draping atdre, 
 Such as foplings admire. 
 But alack for its trail 
 The unfortunate rag, 
 With its dabble and swag, 
 Its duckings and reels, 
 As it dips from each swale 
 The sullage and dag, 
 And sozzles her heels ! 
 Pestiferous slopper, 
 A wasteful street-mopper, 
 Wherever she walks; 
 Or sopping from puddles 
 Their nauseous muddles, 
 (The style a la mode, 
 
 Lord save us the fidgets!) 
 Or draggling the walks 
 Along the high road; 
 Or to flap like a sail, 
 Or toss like a tail, 
 In the impudent gale, 
 Exposing before all 
 The gaudy Balmoral, 
 And figured chemise. 
 [Nor does it displease 
 That's what they are there for, 
 Nor more need she care for!] 
 Or 'tis grabbled and hustled 
 In crimples and crumples
 
 EPIC OF MADAM GRUNDT. 95 
 
 And musses and rumples, 
 And lifttd on high. 
 By cunningly muscled 
 
 Solicitous digits, 
 Where the climate is dry. 
 This changes the show, 
 Disphying to view, 
 As the kind breezes blow, 
 A supplement scene, 
 Instructive and new 
 To the plebeian "green;" 
 With magical tact, 
 Disclosing the fact 
 Beyond cavil or doubt, 
 That this effigy human 
 At la^t is found out 
 To be verily woman ' 
 Has something between 
 The bust and the base, 
 That runs the machine, 
 And not a mere bust 
 On an umbrella perching, 
 Swaying and lurching 
 In high giddy space. 
 Thus after long searching, 
 
 Though erstwhile in vain, 
 The gods now more gracious, 
 Have made to appear, 
 In manner sagacious 
 And method so clear 
 Have settled for certain, 
 The doubtful foundation, 
 And fixed its location 
 And proper relation, 
 By lifting the curtain,
 
 96 THE SUNFL WER. 
 
 And nature is plain. 
 
 'Twas no way mendacious, 
 But utmost audacious, 
 And 'gainst (earful odds, 
 For the urigallant gods 
 To stir the bad graces 
 Of dames in their laces 
 And matrons and crones, 
 
 And get by the ears 
 With young misses' poutings, 
 And elder ones' floutings, 
 And the lachrymose tones 
 Of the scandalized ones 
 In their flustering fears: 
 Not for an exposing 
 Of pillars of stone, 
 Or of iron or wood, 
 But the awful disclosing 
 Of the hidden afore, 
 Viz: The tendon and bone 
 And muscle and gore, 
 Substantial and sound 
 Set firm on the ground, 
 By their Maker called "good!" 
 S<> perfect in keeping 
 And worthy of trust, 
 So fitting their place 
 In capering round 
 In the play or the race, 
 Or rousing the dust 
 In dancing or leaping, 
 With ravishing grace. 
 That stately and trig 
 Symmetrical leg
 
 EPIC OF MADAM GRUNDJ. 97 
 
 So taper and jimp, 
 Not a halt, nor a limp, 
 Nor a bit of a scrimp 
 In os or in muscle. 
 All rivalry mocking 
 Is agg for a tussle 
 In the frolic or chase. 
 
 Then the shadowy stocking 
 Staid up with the grasp 
 Of the dazzling clasp, 
 Where the mischievous sun 
 Mirrors his face. 
 That beautiful leg ! 
 
 What other could pair it 
 Or wishing, would dare it 
 Except 'tis the other? 
 Both hatched from the egg 
 Laid by Beauty's own mother. 
 
 Jennie's a Beauty 
 By common acclaim, 
 Not heedful of duty, 
 Nor troubled with aim: 
 The overdight creature, 
 Outvieing all nature, 
 Decks every feature 
 Where aught can be shown, 
 With exquisite garnish 
 Of pigment or varnish 
 To heighten its tone. 
 In mutual bli- 
 If damaging kisses 
 Abrade it or tarnish; 
 Or sweating should soil it, 
 Or rain-spatter spoil it,
 
 98 THE SUNFL WER. 
 
 With lively encore 
 She flies to the toilet 
 
 She bought at the store: 
 Its colors and brushes 
 Soon mend up the blushes 
 And tintinus and flushes 
 
 As fresh as before. 
 
 Jennie is queen 
 Of the "Vanity Fairs:" 
 This cutest of strollers, 
 Daring all weathers; 
 With the blazes she glares, 
 Is swapping her dollars 
 For tarletons and crapes, 
 Ruffles and collars. 
 Flounces and gathers, 
 Such marvels of dresses 
 In purple and green; 
 With tattings and tapes, 
 Wristlets and capes, 
 Edgings and laces; 
 Bundles and messes 
 To fill out the graces 
 OP all the lean places; 
 And scollops and notches 
 In all the odd shapes 
 That awkwardness botches 
 Or mimicry apes. 
 A whimsey inspires them, 
 Her folly requires them 
 And pertness desires them: 
 So flosses and cruels 
 And trinkets and jewels 
 And broaches and rings
 
 EPIC OF MADAM GEUND7. 99 
 
 And tassels and buttons, 
 With all the gay put-ons 
 Of braidings and strings 
 Of named and unnamable 
 Armfulls of things, 
 With feathers and musses 
 That vanity fus-ses 
 To finish the airs; 
 All these the unshamable 
 Comedy wears. 
 The gudgeon admires them, 
 And mawkishly stares! 
 
 Now comes the climax 
 Of everything bred 
 Or chiseled or made 
 Or fashioned or grown 
 A lily full blown, 
 Scented with lilacs 
 Or minks or cologne 
 Her beautiful head, 
 
 Modeled by Powers! 
 Perched on the top of it, 
 
 Fresh from the shop, 
 A beautiful trap, 
 Not a coal hod nor flat, 
 Nor a bonnet nor cap, 
 They call it a hat, 
 Don't know by the lop of it 
 Whether made for a cat 
 Or a bison or bat 
 Or a peacock or rat, 
 Or a this thing or that, 
 But it answers for bonnet, 
 If the toyyeri/ on it
 
 100 
 
 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 Its drapings and vails, 
 
 And sparkles and spangles, 
 And baubles and morsels, 
 And ribbons and torsels, 
 And nettings and frettings, 
 And tangles and dangles, 
 And frizzings and fritters, 
 And streamers and trails, 
 
 Like the tails of some critters 
 
 Goes flippaty flop! 
 Then on its summit 
 
 A crimson plume towers, 
 With a lop and a bow 
 Over temple and brow, 
 To balance and plumb it. 
 Such beautiful red top 
 On the exquisite head top, 
 
 Unsettles the brain, 
 And turns topsy turvy, 
 Though ever so nervy, 
 As maggot or scurvy, 
 
 The whole Jockey train. 
 
 Now search ye the mazes 
 
 Of folly and show, 
 
 On medium levels, 
 
 In high life, or low, 
 
 Where affluence revels, 
 Or ambition crazes, 
 
 Or indigence begs, 
 
 And find if you can, 
 
 Kin to monkey or man, 
 
 Anything for a span 
 For this Lily on legs.
 
 EPIC OF MADAM GRUNDY. 101 
 
 "Hail to this Lily 
 Pink of perfection, 
 Ordained by election, 
 Moulded by Fashion, 
 To lavish the cash on 
 
 The cream of the town !" 
 So the young loafers say, 
 
 Flashy and silly, 
 
 As they stand in the way, 
 Chawing and smoking, 
 Laughing and joking, 
 
 As she down town is tripping 
 Apparaled so gaily, 
 So airy and stately 
 As is her wont lately, 
 Some '-fourteen times" daily, 
 And comes in their range. 
 Demented with passion, 
 Their senses bemuddled 
 A-swigjiing and sipping 
 Their lager and wine, 
 What about it is strange 
 If they call her "divine," 
 And vote her a crown, 
 In spite (if the funk 
 Of villainous varments, 
 Exhaled from her garments? 
 (A stink as disgusting, 
 As nastiness muring, 
 Or polecat or skunk.) 
 Jennie is pretty. 
 Winsome and witty. 
 And sings like bird, 
 A musical star
 
 102 
 
 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 Of sonnet or ditty 
 
 So tell her men me; 
 Her thumbing and drumming 
 And thrumming and humming 
 
 The babbling guitar, 
 
 Sometimes I've heard. 
 
 But calling her "witty" 
 
 0, merciful pity, 
 
 Spare us that word ! 
 
 They are lashed with her gird- 
 
 (0, for some soothing lotion!) 
 
 Sick with Love's potion, 
 
 Blind with the smart 
 
 From his treacherous dart; 
 
 0, that vu'nerose part! 
 
 The worst hurt that can be 
 
 In nature or art. 
 
 Is the perforate heart. 
 Has fortune no savor 
 
 To plead in their favor, 
 
 To wake an emotion, 
 
 And give them a start, 
 
 To bring their devotion * 
 
 To some higher mart? 
 
 Jennie is shy. 
 Wary and prudish, 
 Cool, even rudish, 
 
 Artful and sly, 
 Watchful and careful 
 
 In parlor or hall. 
 
 At concert or ball; 
 
 Seemingly prayerful 
 
 When others are by; 
 This covers appearance
 
 EPIC OF MADAM GRUNDT. 103 
 
 And saves reputation 
 
 From contamination 
 And bars interference 
 
 Of the gossiping fry. 
 But meet her sub rosa 
 
 In the masonic dark 
 
 Only lit by her spark, 
 And none to expose her; 
 
 Or with damask to screen her, 
 Or a panel between her 
 
 And where the birds fly, 
 And this wary demeanor, 
 Say those who have seen her, 
 'Ts all in your eye." 
 
 There meekly resigning 
 
 To sociable ways. 
 
 And fondly inclining 
 
 To rapturous twining 
 
 In frolicsome plays; 
 
 Her liitle love graces 
 
 And thrilling embraces 
 
 And magnetic kisses 
 
 With all the sweet blisses, 
 
 So come in their places, 
 
 Affirming her yeses 
 To all you desire, 
 
 That you catch the infection, 
 
 And spite of reflection, 
 
 Or fear of detect inn 
 
 (A fii for protection, 
 
 Or sage circumspection 
 
 In proper selection !) 
 
 You dare all objection, 
 
 And bless this collection
 
 104 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 Of matchless perfection 
 Of every complection 
 And rush in the fire. 
 
 MORAL. 
 
 As silly insects of a summer night 
 
 Bedazzled, flutter round the taper fire, 
 Witless of danger in the subtle light, 
 
 J)art in and crisp a moment and expire : 
 Just so the far more siliy human kind, 
 
 Mistaking Pleasure's wanton shining game 
 For Happiness, rush hi edless in and blind, 
 
 To scorch and suffer in her treacherous flame. 
 
 October, 1866. 
 
 EVENING HYMN. 
 
 Sleep! balmy Sleep! come close my eyes, 
 Now evening shadows vail the skies; 
 Tired nature longs the d;iy to close, 
 And find in thee her sweet repose. 
 Thy bedtime bells unite their chime 
 Of jaded labor's nodding time; 
 Thy drowsy hands their cradles rock, 
 From this glad moment, '-nine o'clock." 
 
 Let me on thy dear lap recline, 
 There all my weariness resign, 
 Drink deep the nectar streams that gush 
 'Twixt now and morning's welcome blush;
 
 EVENING HYMN. 105 
 
 Let thy sweet lips my eyelids kiss, 
 And seal them in undreaming bliss: 
 Kind stop of nature's conscious watch, 
 That steps life's tallies, notch by notch. 
 
 Let spirit kindred make my bed, 
 And smooth the pillow for my head, 
 My heart its griefs and anguish flies 
 In their magnetic lullabies; 
 They lull my jaded brain to peace, 
 The achings of my bosom cease; 
 My flesh, my senses, nerves and limbs, 
 All listen to their soothing hymns. 
 
 Thus may T meet life's closing eve 
 Which ushers in the grand reprieve, 
 When that immortal day shall break, 
 And all refreshed, renewed I wake. 
 No more of toil, no more of pain, 
 Of earthly passion, earthly pnin; 
 No treachery nor false display 
 All round, that chafed my mortal way. 
 
 But angel kin enrobed in light,] 
 To genial banquets sweet invite, 
 And calm and sunshine, peace and joy 
 My franchise*] senses all employ: 
 There heart to heart its matins sings, 
 As moments fly on ether wings, 
 While truth and wisdom, life and love, 
 Their ever during cycles move. 
 
 December 5th, 1866.
 
 106 
 
 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF MAN NEVER GROWS OLD. 
 
 As the elements play 
 Beneath the broad sky, 
 
 In produce and decay 
 Of all that can die; 
 
 As the glory of morning 
 Is buried in ni^ht, 
 
 And earth's cunning labor 
 In mildew and blight 
 
 So recrement drosses 
 
 Be-mantle the gold 
 
 The Spirit of Man 
 
 That never grows old. 
 
 So the plant and the vine, 
 And the berry and grain, 
 
 And clover and fruit 
 Of the garden and plain, 
 
 Of valley and mountain, 
 Of forest and glade, 
 
 A season they flourish, 
 Then rotting are laid, 
 
 While ages and cycles 
 
 Primeval unrolled, 
 
 Ere the Spirit of Man 
 
 That never grows old. 
 
 The ant and the bee, 
 The spider, the leech, 
 
 The mole in the burrow, 
 The clam on the beach, 
 
 The brute of the prairie,
 
 THE SPIRIT OF MAN. 
 
 107 
 
 The bird of the sky, 
 Sport a brief moment, 
 
 Then sicken and die: 
 Nature whiles busy 
 Exalting her mold 
 Towards the Spirit of Man 
 That never grows old. 
 
 Man only a germ 
 Is flung on life s stage, 
 
 Labors through growth, 
 And ripeness and -age, 
 
 Suffers and totters 
 Adown the bleak hill, 
 
 So closes the drama 
 Of life's living chill. 
 
 From out this finale 
 
 Repu'sive and cold, 
 
 Springs the Spirit of Man 
 
 That nevers grows old. 
 
 Fatigued are the hands 
 In the warfare of lite, 
 
 And weary the heart 
 In the militant strife; 
 
 Faith, feeble with watching, 
 Hope, faint with delay, 
 
 In unison sighing 
 Their ardors away. 
 
 Some vestige immortal 
 
 These ruins unfold 
 
 Of the Spirit of Man 
 
 That never grows old. 
 
 The toiiiiue becomes silent 
 The vision grows dim,
 
 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 The ear loses hearing, 
 The muscles their vim, 
 
 The nerves forget feeling, 
 The passions their sway, 
 
 And the senses are stealing 
 In Lethe away. 
 
 Thus is the undying 
 
 In piecemeal outrolled, 
 
 Of the Spirit of Man 
 
 That never grows old. 
 
 There's a home for this Spirit 
 In gardens of bliss 
 
 Not frosted by Winter 
 Nor dying, as this 
 
 With fountains Elysian 
 In musical chiuie, 
 
 And fruits all aglow 
 Of the supernal clime; 
 
 Celestial their relish, 
 Of richness untold, 
 
 The Spirit regaling 
 
 Shall never grow old. 
 
 March 28th, 1867. 
 
 OUR CHRISTMAS DINNER. 
 
 Not a squall wall was heard from a gobbler's throat, 
 
 Nor a goose's hideous bumming, 
 Nor martyred duck quacked funeral note 
 
 To herald the Christmas coming.
 
 OUR CHRISTMAS DINNER. 109 
 
 But we killed the "Old Rooster," the champion cock, 
 
 That Hectored the yard so proudly 
 His magistral head we brought to the block, 
 
 Which clamored at morn so loudly. 
 
 On his robe was the sheen of brilliants aglow, 
 As the morning sun gleamed o'er his back; 
 
 And shrill as the steam-whistle rang out his crow, 
 As he flapped on the peak of the stack. 
 
 TiU'frosted he wore a magnificent crest, 
 
 On a caput he reconed the biggest; 
 No lady becottoned could show such a breast, 
 
 Though feathered and furred off the triggest. 
 
 Snow-white were his pinions just tipped with black, 
 
 And white was the surplice he wore; 
 His tail so high arching and sweeping his track: 
 
 Such a tail never worn before, 
 
 Except by fine ladies to set off a grace, 
 
 Or hide what the gaffs would throw chaff at, 
 
 These stick the gay plume over temple or face, 
 For the roosters themselves to laugh at! 
 
 He was stately, and rallied and ruled like a lord, 
 
 No rival his manor dividing, 
 The cockerels scud at his frown or his nod; 
 
 The sun even rose at his bidding! 
 
 If saw he his profile perched on the barns, 
 
 Govern the course of the wind, 
 'Twas only conceit of the bulk of his harns, 
 
 So common with two legged kind.
 
 1 10 THE SUNFL WER. 
 
 Our hero disdained all political place 
 
 Of congress or cabinet fugle, 
 Deserving no share in log-rolling disgrace; 
 
 Nor gave he false note to his bugle. 
 
 But true as the magnet, he played well his part 
 In the drama of nature's high missions, 
 
 Till the raiders of Christmas struck deep to his heart, 
 To pamper their Cretin conditions. 
 
 A pity it seems such imperial head 
 
 Should fall by a stroke a la French''- 
 But Christmas is coming and maughs must beefed, 
 
 Though necks meet the cleaver or wrench ! 
 
 When Fashion indorses, nobody refrains 
 
 This carnival Christian holiday; 
 The creatures what matter their joys or their pains, 
 
 If we can enjoy a fine jolly day ! 
 
 The good wife lays hold of the truncated hulk 
 
 And begins a post mortem inspection 
 Of plucking' and scraping and singeing in bulk, 
 
 And ending in butcher's dissection. 
 
 The cuts in the pot are tastily laid 
 
 And covered with dumplings all over, 
 So a pie is compounded and dinner is made 
 
 Fit to set to a queen or a lover. 
 
 The pastry so huffy the kettle does fill 5 
 
 The medley all flavored so clever, 
 Is more than a match for Delmonico's skill ' 
 
 Hail, "Old-fashioned pot-pie," forever!
 
 UR CHRISTMAS DINNER. 1 1 1 
 
 I This served upon trenchers, or earthen at best, 
 
 Where love itself whistles and sings, 
 And the glow of affection warms every breast, 
 Is better than viands of kings. 
 
 (Little Freddie and Carrie so gleeful all day, 
 
 Incessantly laughing and talking. 
 Heaping and spreading in showy array 
 
 What '-Santa" had put in each stocking, 
 
 Now hush for a time or whisper their tone, 
 
 As "Pa" in the soup terreen fishes 
 To bring from the deep, the old oracle bone, 
 
 That time-honored umpire of wishes. 
 
 "Please give me the wish bone ?" Fred audibly breathed 
 "No dive me the with bone?" in whisper 
 
 Plead Carrie: but the charm was bequeathed 
 Both to Fred and the dimple-cheeked lisper. 
 
 Soon wishes were framed with a prayer to the fates, 
 How the dry bone at e'en should declare them. 
 She a hat and a play-time to wear them). 
 
 By some hocus, next morn both had little skates 
 
 Thus we fed on his carcase so juicy and sweet, 
 
 So luscious in muscle and fat, 
 Till ended in surfeit the cannibal feast, 
 
 And the fragment we flung to the cat. 
 
 Such is Fame a summit the Hero attains 
 
 A name emblazoned in story! 
 We wrapped our warm bosoms about his remains, 
 
 "And left him alone with his glory." 
 
 1867.
 
 112 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 A THOUGHT. 
 
 "Why should a living man complain?" 
 Complaining is but weakness shown; 
 
 No profit does repining gain : 
 
 Why murmur at each transient pain, 
 And mar each moment with a groan? 
 
 What though the joys of earth are flown, 
 And laughing Hope no more beguile? 
 Better to court a cheerful tone, 
 Cherish the blessings round thee strown, 
 
 And woo the lips their pleasant smile. 
 
 GUARDIANS. 
 
 Spirit Kindred watching near me 
 
 Night and day, 
 With their kindly whispers cheer me 
 
 On my way : 
 'Tis the Spirit sweet communion, 
 
 Blessed boon ! 
 Earnest of the dear reunion 
 
 Coming soon ; 
 
 Reunion in those happier spheres 
 Beyond the storms of changing years. 
 
 Whispers as of Eden given, 
 Greet mine ear,
 
 GUARDIANS. 113 
 
 As if nearer bringing Heaven, 
 
 Still more near; 
 Calling upward, sweetly calling, 
 
 To the sky, 
 Wait my weary soul to welcome 
 
 By and by; 
 
 (0, how my longing soul will spring 
 To rise and join them on the wing!) 
 
 Tell, my prison chains are breaking, 
 
 One by one, 
 And my Bastile walls their quaking 
 
 Have begun ; 
 Tell me that each pang of sorrow 
 
 Parts one string 
 Staying from the brighter morrow 
 
 Opening, 
 
 When friend with friend and heart to heart 
 Unite again no more to part. 
 
 Thus serene, awake or sleeping 
 
 Am I blest, 
 Spirit kin their vigils keeping, 
 
 Aud I rest, 
 Patient in the petty trials 
 
 Which assail. 
 Bravely meeting self-denials, 
 
 To prevail 
 
 And rise these jarring scenes above 
 To that blest paradise of love. 
 
 Thus I wait a little longer 
 
 Here below; 
 Faith and hope are growing stronger, 
 
 As I go;
 
 114 THE SUNFL WER. 
 
 Higher Heaven still keeps rising, 
 
 As I win 
 Purer joys, and love and goodness 
 
 Conquer sin. 
 
 'Tis endless progress themes my lays 
 And tunes my heart in grateful praise. 
 
 So each triumph in the struggle 
 
 Wears its palm; 
 Wounds all cured by this spirit 
 
 Gilead balm; 
 Till adieu to pain and sadness, 
 
 Toil and care 
 All exchanged for rest and gladness, 
 
 Over there, 
 
 Upon that blooming thither shore, 
 Where death and winter blight no more. 
 
 May 3rd, 1868. 
 
 COUPLET. 
 
 Blind man courts pleasure in her wanton shapes, 
 The rankling thorn remains the rose escapes.
 
 M7 MOUNTAIN HOME. 115 
 
 MY MOUNTAIN HOME. 
 
 How dear to me my mountain home 
 Thy woodland braes and rippling rills! 
 'Twas there my infant feet did roam 
 Along thy vales and o'er thy hills; 
 Thy fountains clear and sunny glades: 
 Thy teeming fields and orchards gay, 
 And grape-embowered arbor shades 
 "Where careless childhood loved to stray. 
 
 CHORUS: 
 
 Come back to me, my mountain home! 
 Dear scenes where memory loves to run; 
 Earth, air and sky seemed all abloom 
 As life and I went whistling on. 
 
 I love thy fields and meadows green 
 That shimmered in the warming ray; 
 Thy pools and streams that danced between, 
 When Summer donned her plumage gay. 
 Thy lilies wore so white a bloom, 
 Thy roses such refulgent hue ; 
 Thy lilacs breathing such perfume 
 The gales were fragrant with its dew. 
 
 How bright thy Winter stars did glow, 
 
 Out-peering through the crispy sky, 
 
 And laughed, as through the shivering snow 
 
 Our coasting sleds went whirling by. 
 
 Thy wakeful moon benignly shone, 
 
 As if to bless our evening roof
 
 116 
 
 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 Our altar dear, and loved hearth stone 
 Kind Heaven's gift, our rich behoof. 
 
 My youthful heart was guileless then, 
 All things around me showed so fair, 
 Unschooled in wiles and wrongs of men, 
 My hours winged lightly, free of care. 
 The world seemed an unceasing song, 
 Enchanting to my childhood mind; 
 All things appeared a chiming throng, 
 And birds and T the chorus joined. 
 
 May 7th, 1868. 
 
 A RIDDLE. 
 
 Here and there we go, 
 
 Yet do not leave our place; 
 In Winter's drifting snow, 
 
 Or Summer's fervent chase, 
 We toil away, or drove or led, 
 Or sentry keep around our bed. 
 
 We jockey at the fair; 
 
 We play upon the stage; 
 We rive the dusty air 
 
 Amid the race's rage. 
 So hie we through the stormy years, 
 Disdainful both of smiles and tears. 
 
 In summersaults we plunge, 
 Yet ever stand aright;
 
 CHEWING GUM. 117 
 
 Now making luckless lunge, 
 
 Now flying like a kite; 
 Thus '-bobbing round," or drunk or fired, 
 Or double file, bemoiled and tired 
 
 Fight we the war of life, 
 Its battles and alarms; 
 Treading through each strife, 
 
 Bearing still our arms. 
 Now what are we whence we came 
 Our riddle tell, and what our name? 
 
 CHEWING GUM. 
 
 [Scene, The Ghurcli; Actress, Miss Araminta.] 
 
 Notice you that queenly maiden 
 
 Stately come 
 Down the aisle with Jasper Hayden,- 
 
 Chewing gum? 
 
 She's the Belle, a model lady; 
 Half the beaux to die are ready 
 For that jaw that wags so steady, 
 
 Chewing gum! 
 
 In the pew, together cosy 
 
 With her chum, 
 
 Turgid cheek all fresh and rosy, 
 Chewing gum. 
 
 How her pretty chin does teeter!
 
 118 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 I 
 
 Never smiled an angel sweeter: 
 Sure an angel could not beat her 
 Chewing gum ! 
 
 Her two lips with cherry vieing, 
 
 Or a plum, 
 Half a mind to hide from spying 
 
 Chewing gum, 
 
 Seem just on the eve of parting 
 For some eloquence out-darting, 
 But alack they're only starting 
 
 Chewing gum ! 
 
 Out her dewy mouth she takes it: 
 
 "Precious crum !" 
 In a fancy bolus makes it 
 
 With her thumb, 
 See her balance it on finger, 
 And in admiration linger: 
 "Luscious lozenge 'tis, by gingo 
 Chewing gum!" 
 
 On the street or common walking, 
 
 Or the slum ; 
 At the ball or levee talking, 
 
 Chewing gum 
 
 Fits the staid and the erratic, 
 Fits the basement, shed and attic, 
 And the courts aristocratic, 
 
 Dregs and scum. 
 
 On all out-occasions chewing, 
 
 Or at home, 
 Ceaseless, heedless, paltry chewing, 
 
 Chewing gum!
 
 MONEY. 119 
 
 Mimic younglings ready nab it, 
 Chewing like young goat or rabbit, 
 Soon grow finished in the habit, 
 Chewing gum. 
 
 MORAL : 
 
 As tiny insect in the light which shines 
 
 And poisons flower and fruit with subtle sting; 
 
 "As little foxes spoil the tender vines," 
 So little habits death and ruin bring. 
 
 January 10th, 1869. 
 
 MONEY. 
 
 Money is king! 
 
 Ha! ha! ha! 
 The world is its ring. 
 In worshiping tone, 
 All states and all nations, 
 All grades and all stations, 
 Bow down to its throne; 
 Their lords and their commons, 
 Their senates and halls, 
 When money is waiting, 
 Cut short their debating 
 To list to its summons 
 And answer its calls. 
 
 Money is gracious ! 
 Haw! haw! haw!
 
 1 20 TEE SUNFL WER. 
 
 Gives note and hooraw 
 
 To its lucky possessor, 
 
 Be he priest or professor, 
 
 Or rowdy or clown ; 
 
 Or the idling scorners 
 
 That hang on the corners 
 
 Or loaf about town. 
 
 The grave parson vows to it 
 
 With desire rapacious, 
 
 In cant quite religious 
 
 And fervor prodigious, 
 
 [As custom does show;] 
 
 And, as to Pope, bows to it, 
 
 When he cravens before him, 
 
 To praise and adore him 
 
 And u kiss his big toe." 
 
 Money's a charm 
 
 Ho! ho! ho! 
 More fain than a farm 
 To aid the curmudgeons 
 And boors and gudgeons 
 
 To strut up and crow! 
 Just the thing for the flunkies 
 
 To hold in their paw; 
 Gives toddies to monkies, 
 And lagers to donkeys 
 
 To wash down their straw. 
 The golden heart bumps 
 Inside of the breast 
 Of both sharpers and gumps, 
 Forbidding their rest 
 In the battle and chase 
 After profit and place 
 In the farcical test:
 
 MONEY. 121 
 
 All of them crave it, 
 Few only can save it, 
 Discount and shave it 
 With generous profit 
 Of cent per cent off it, 
 As commerce defines; 
 [Here conscience declines 
 Her saucy behest,] 
 And shrewdness indorses; 
 It buys them fast horses, 
 Frolicksome, frisky, 
 Women and wine, 
 Tobacco and whisky, 
 And raises the shine 
 On their leather so fine. 
 
 How I love money ! 
 
 He! he! he! 
 "Tis better than honey 
 
 You ready can see; 
 It deals me the trumps, 
 And with them the game 
 
 Which wins me the pile 
 Of nuggets and lumps, 
 And with them the fame 
 Of a "lucky dog's" name: 
 This hideth all shame 
 Of whatever blame, 
 'Neath the roseate flame 
 Of mammon's sweet smile. 
 
 Early or late, 
 
 Wherever I range, 
 Money 's my passport, 
 I've many a glass for 't,
 
 122 
 
 THE SUNFL WER. 
 
 And many a lass for 't, 
 Jane, Sally and Kate; 
 'Mong toadies and shoddies 
 And nabobs and noddies 
 In popular rabble. 
 Or civilized bodies 
 Of bulls and of bears 
 That higgle and haffle 
 Tn picayune raffle, 
 Or stock-jobber gabble 
 Over competing shares, 
 
 Where millions exchange. 
 Now you see why T covet 
 And praise it and love it, 
 There 's nothing above it, 
 Nor near it, for fame 
 To notice and name. 
 
 Money is ma^ic, 
 And logic, and law, 
 Comico tragic, 
 Rules counselors, judges, 
 Philosophers, kings; 
 It wheedles and nudges 
 And dazzles and brings 
 Devoted all classes, 
 Lodges and masses, 
 Of schemers and rings, 
 
 To satiate its maw. 
 
 May 29th, 1869.
 
 RICH. 123 
 
 RICH. 
 
 They say he is "Rich !" 
 
 A wonderful word, 
 
 So often repeated 
 
 Like song of a bird. 
 
 But of its import what meaneth its sgund, 
 As it rings through the welkin and echoes around? 
 Ah! yes what are riches f and what are they for? 
 Are they comfort and plenty, or turmoil and war? 
 
 These are his riches: 
 
 Heaps labored and vast 
 
 From dunghills and ditches 
 
 Of a wasted life past; 
 
 He's scraped them together of muck and of mold, 
 A tomb for his carcase now wasted and old; 
 But "rich" they now call him, with millions and muff, 
 This sates his ambition is glory enough ! 
 
 He swore to be rich 
 
 When he started in life : 
 
 So starving his children 
 
 And crushing his wife; 
 Corrupting his morals, debasing his mind 
 O'erreaching, deceiving and robbing his kind 
 By shaving and shoddy, extortion and fraud 
 He reckons his millions, and wretches applaud. 
 
 Yes : rich without morals, 
 Or manhood, or mind,
 
 124 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 Or manners, or taste, 
 
 Or a spirit refined; 
 Rich without wisdom, modesty, love, 
 Gentleness, purity, born from above; 
 Rich in the trover of illgotten pelf, 
 But a pauper per se when he reckons himself. 
 
 May 80th, 1869. 
 
 THE DYING BODY'S ADIEU* 
 
 TO ITS DEPARTING SPIRIT. 
 
 Spirit! our warfare is o'er, 
 Its conflicts are ended at last; 
 
 Turmoils and marches fatigue us no more, 
 Now the last tottering milestone is pass'd. 
 
 Thou art off to the beautiful shore, 
 
 (Poor me to the coffin they cast,) 
 
 Where thy longings their freedom will see, 
 
 To rest or regale as they please, 
 
 In culling the fruit of each life-giving tree, 
 Or sniffing the balm of the breeze; 
 
 Freedom from prison and me, 
 
 As nature maternal decrees. 
 
 Spirit! thy troubles are sped, 
 The pangs that thy senses have stung, 
 
 The tears as the rain, that thy anguish has shed, 
 And the throes that thy bosom have wrung, 
 All garnered with me with the dead, 
 With the mantle of Lethe o'er-flung.
 
 THE D TING B OD Y'S ADIEU. 125 
 
 No anger will more knit thy brow, 
 
 Commotion nor redden thy cheek, 
 
 No more cheat thine ear will the treacherous vow, 
 
 When the heart a friend-treasure would seek; 
 
 Affections are purified now, 
 
 And thy tongue the glad numbers will speak. 
 
 Spirit! 'Twas animate clay 
 Moiling its way through earth's gloom, 
 
 Urged by thy ardors impatient of stay 
 'Tis worn out a- working its doom: 
 
 It bids thee now farewell for aye, 
 
 And lies down to rest in its tomb. 
 Dear Spirit our warfare is o'er, 
 
 Its conflicts are ended at last; 
 
 Perils and marches fatigue us no more, 
 For the last tottering milestone is passed. 
 Thou art flown to that bright Summer shore, 
 
 And left me as reptiles' repast. 
 
 January 29th, 1871. 
 
 NOTK. This poem is the last conceit of the writer's inspirations 
 in a rhyming way, more than six years agone, therefore he deems it a 
 most appropriate closing.
 
 126 THE SUNFL WEE. 
 
 NOTE 1. In Wassuc Parish, town of Glastenbury, Hartford Coun 
 ty, Connecticut, some ten miles south-east of Hartford City; on north 
 side of highway, some half mile west of the Old Red Church on Old 
 Street running north and south, (said church now is moved northward 
 into another neighborhood), and on a gentle slope eastward towards 
 "Great Brook," and south of "Roaring Brook." In the center of the 
 house stood an enormous irregular pyramid of rough stones, alias a 
 chimney, nondescript in form, with a system of fire-places suited to 
 the circumjacent rooms. In the kitchen was a culinary fixture, 
 called "oven," whence came forth at breakfast the aromatic browu 
 breads kept steaming hot over night; the luscious baked apples to 
 zest the bread-and-milk supper; as also the more artistic pastries 
 mince and other pies, together with the ever-expected "turnover" for 
 each juvenile to crown Thanksgiving and the Holidays, and dot an 
 occasional prudent piece along the circle of the year. 
 
 Under the oven was the "stockhold," to kennel the flat-irons and 
 the inanimate "goose." 
 
 In the base of the chimney in the cellar, was the "ash-hold," a 
 cranny sacred to the domestic "soap-boiler:" it received through an 
 opening in the fire-place back (a most convenient device) and down a 
 passage or descending Hue, the daily accumulation of ashee. These 
 all, with the motley addend of nooks, recesses, and ledges for shelves, 
 cupboards and cases, and so on, made the great "centerstauce" of a 
 yankee rural mansion, necessary and fashionable in the P. M. of the 
 eighteenth century, and the morning of the nineteenth. Yet the 
 quiet felicities of Home delighted to hover and nestle around and in 
 these rustic domiciles. 
 
 NOTE 2. The last of this "infernal machine," was among my 
 earliest remembrances : 'twas put up to furnish the embargoed people 
 with cider-brandy during the war of 1813-15
 
 NOTES. 127 
 
 NOTK 3. By we.-t side of L'arden wall, six or eiirht rods west of the 
 house, barn in rear and the smithy in front by the highway. 
 
 Fur those readers who are not acquainted with these rustic con 
 trivances of "ye olden times." a de.-cription of one seems proper. 
 They are now mostly superseded by more artistic di". 
 
 The "troii:_'h" is annular, of some twelve to fifteen feet diameter, 
 with a depth and width of some ten in lies; inner wall vertical, and 
 the outer wall battered or beveled outward to conform to the shape of 
 the wheel. A pivot post is set in center of the trough circle. 
 
 The wheel is some six feet diameter, made solid of timbe: - 
 eight inches on tread, inner face flat, outer face convex or conical, and 
 treads in the trough, and is held in position by the arm or shaft (the 
 one I rode on i which i- hum: to the "pivot post," and extends through 
 the wheel and protrudes far enough beyond it, "to hitch 'Old Dobin' 
 to." who traveled on his own circuit. 
 
 Old cider-makers, most of whom were also cider-topers and hence 
 conuois-euis in their line, always endorsed the 1 "wheel mill," for "it 
 ma.-hes the seed.- as no other mill does." They used to say that there 
 "wa- almost as much cider virtue in the seeds as in all the rest of the 
 apple." 
 
 NOTK 4. This tiny tube, this frail, yet invaluable equipment of 
 every boy at a cider mill, aided by vacuum producing power, com 
 pletes an impromptu syphon, and is. even without "your lieve. Sir?" 
 poked 'Into every pool and rill and current drippini: from the i 
 andf thrust into the liuiiir and vent of every replenished cask on the 
 prenii.-es. and with as tirele-- ardor as ever bee or humbird flitted 
 from flower to flower siarnerini: their delectable sweets. 
 
 NOTE 5. Stairs led from kitchen. The second step was a broad 
 one, door upon it opening into "stair way." Stair.- turned at riirht 
 angle to the riiiht to escape the roof (only a "story and a half.") The 
 tir.-t step was in the kitchen, and on this I sat as Prince exercising 
 the Yankee spirit and practice : while on broad step, behind the door> 
 ored my whittlinj: stock. I availed myself of " 'Ally's' knife to 
 make peL's." i my oldest brother's name is Alpheus) and my thumb 
 Mill bears the mark of this juvenile industry. 
 
 Nnii: ti. In those days it was both customary and respectable for 
 women mothers and daughter- to r-pin wool and flax and. weave 
 them. too. I!ut then, that was before i-hoddy was fa:-hionahle. 
 
 NOTE 7. One incident connected therewith is remembered: One 
 of the cows named "Milly." was a favorite. My si-ter. I'rsula, used 
 to milk her. In the cow yard lay a lari_'e boulder, one corner of which
 
 THE SUNFLOWER. 
 
 was just low enough for a convenient milking stool. Ursula, pail in 
 hand, would scat herself upon this rock, and Milly would generally 
 come unbidden, but if not, a word would bring her to. But she some 
 times failed to strike the exact position the first time a trifle too far 
 ahead, or too near or too distant in which case Ursula had but to 
 make her a gentle slap, and say: "Go off Milly, and come round 
 better!" True to the hint, she would make her little circuit and gen 
 erally come riirht : though I've sometimes seen her make her circuit 
 under orders two or three times before the exact position was at 
 tained; and she always came round with the r-ame meek and patient 
 air. 
 
 Ah, Milly such meekness, patience and fidelity are .seldom met 
 with in thy sex now-a-days I 
 
 NOTE 8. My unforgiving h'Lis have even now, not quite forgotten 
 the smart of the "birch" administered to them because they deviated 
 from the precise latitude and longitude, horizontal and perpendicular, 
 prescribed: because they were unable, through the tardy hours, to 
 endure with statue quiet, the merciless torture of those four. live, and 
 six-legged stools stools ten to fifteen feet loiiir. made of oak or chest 
 nut slabs, with sticks stuck in auger-holes for le'_rs. and all in their 
 native tinish of surface, color and <rrain. These juvenile, racks by 
 sublime effrontery called seats- -were considered by the country school 
 managers as suitable outfit*, tint 1 he urchins who sat on them became 
 afflicted with "unsuitable in-lit-." 
 
 XOTK (i. --Stone fences: hardly any others on the farm. Field* 
 small, yet plenty of stock for more fence* "lying around loose" on the 
 land where these were gathered. 
 
 XOTK 10.- Thus contradistinguished from my father's, or the new 
 one. 
 
 NOTK 11. This old cellar, the last relic of my trrandsire's domicile, 
 was only a few rods west of my father's, a little further back nearer 
 the -spring:" as pioneers in all countries plant tliemsehv- 
 instinct, as convenient as possible to a supply of that indispensable 
 element, water. And though he had to battle with unfriendly climate, 
 ruined soil and primeval forest, they had plenty of pure water. He 
 died in 1810. 
 
 NOTK li. -The Larch, or "Hackmatack," his only ornamental 
 tree, stood nearly in front of house. 
 
 NOTE 13. About the 20th of October, 1817, with an outfit of a yoke 
 of oxen and a cart (supplemented with the "old gray mare" and a one 
 horse wagon) containing the "housen stuff' 1 of a caravan of the five
 
 NOTES. 129 
 
 pilgrims, and after two weeks of toilsome journeying we arrived at a 
 little log hut which cattle had appropriated for a stable in the 
 woods, (Hollistcrville grew there afterwards), in Salem township, 
 Wayne county, Pennsylvania, on the ninth day of the November fol 
 lowing. That one hundred and eighty miles journey, at that time and 
 the circumstances and conditions appertaining, was a greater under 
 taking than is an around the world" at the present day. 
 
 NOTE 14. We left Pennsylvania, (Hollisterville). May 10th, 1838, 
 "overland" with horse teams, and arrived here in Little Eock township, 
 Kendall (then Kane) county. Illinois, the rflith of the following June. 
 
 Piano was planted here in IS.'-,'. 
 
 NOTI-: ON I:I.K<;V ON DKATII OF CHARLES 
 
 MADISON ( Al!\ 'I-:!,'. 
 
 Charlie with others, some seventy-live in all, in and about Col 
 chester. Connecticut, paid in s'ilX) each, bought the barque Selma, 
 Orrin Sele\v. Master, set sail for California, April llth, 1849, and 
 arrived in San Francisco the following October 5th. (The following 
 is from his friend Plumas.'i He was sick from <ly-rnteiy on shipboard, 
 and did not leave the vessel till the i:Jth of February. 1S50. when feel 
 ing a little better lie went up to Plumas City, worked a little, but his 
 old malady returned on him. But at the earnest solicitation of a 
 claim owner, lie went, though yet feeble, some seventy-five miles up 
 Hie. Middle Yuba. to hold by possession the claim the said owner had 
 purchased. He had no tent, and was not able to build one even of 
 biush. His "wayside acquaintance." whom he had engaged to 
 help him in his claim work. \\as away prospecting:" and thus 
 Charlie was left alone to die of enteric inflammation, on the bank of 
 the Yuba. See page 48. 
 
 THE END.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 Form L9-100m-9,'52(A3105)444
 
 PS 
 
 I9 
 H?27s 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REG ONAL L BRARY ; FACILITY