Читать книгу Hoosier Lyrics - Field Eugene - Страница 3

When I wuz somewhat younger,

I wuz reckoned purty gay —

I had my fling at everything

In a rollickin', coltish way,

But times have strangely altered

Since sixty years ago —

This age of steam an' things don't seem

Like the age I used to know,

Your modern innovations

Don't suit me, I confess,

As did the ways of the good ol' days —

But I'm gettin' on, I guess.

I set on the piazza

An' hitch around with the sun —

Sometimes, mayhap, I take a nap,

Waitin' till school is done,

An' then I tell the children

The things I done in youth,

An' near as I can (as a venerable man)

I stick to the honest truth!

But the looks of them 'at listen

Seems sometimes to express

The remote idee that I'm gone – you see!

An' I am gettin' on, I guess.

I get up in the mornin',

An' nothin' else to do,

Before the rest are up and dressed

I read the papers through;

I hang 'round with the women

All day an' hear 'em talk,

An' while they sew or knit I show

The baby how to walk;

An' somehow, I feel sorry

When they put away his dress

An' cut his curls ('cause they're like a girl's) —

I'm gettin' on, I guess!

Sometimes, with twilight round me,

I see (or seem to see)

A distant shore where friends of yore

Linger and watch for me;

Sometimes I've heered 'em callin'

So tenderlike 'nd low

That it almost seemed like a dream I dreamed,

Or an echo of long ago;

An' sometimes on my forehead

There falls a soft caress,

Or the touch of a hand – you understand —

I'm gettin' on, I guess.