Читать книгу Neghborly Poems and Dialect Sketches - Riley James Whitcomb - Страница 21

"Coon-dog Wess" – he allus went

'Mongst us here by that-air name.

Moved in this-here Settlement

From next county – he laid claim, —

Lived down in the bottoms – whare

Ust to be some coons in thare! —

In nigh Clayton's, next the crick, —

Mind old Billy ust to say

Coons in thare was jest that thick,

He'p him corn-plant any day! —

And, in rostneer-time, be then

Aggin' him to plant again!

Well, – In Spring o' '67,

This-here "Coon-dog Wess" he come —

Fetchin' 'long 'bout forty-'leven

Ornriest-lookin' hounds, I gum!

Ever mortul-man laid eyes

On sence dawn o' Christian skies!

Wife come traipsin' at the rag-

Tag-and-bobtail of the crowd,

Dogs and childern, with a bag

Corn-meal and some side-meat, —Proud

And as independunt—My!—

Yit a mild look in her eye.

Well – this "Coon-dog Wess" he jest

Moved in that-air little pen

Of a pole-shed, aidgin' west

On "The Slues o' Death," called then. —

Otter- and mink-hunters ust

To camp thare 'fore game vam-moosd.

Abul-bodied man, – and lots

Call fer choppers– and fer hands

To git cross-ties out. – But what's

Work to sich as understands

Ways appinted and is hence

Under special providence? —

"Coon-dog Wess's" holts was hounds

And coon-huntin'; and he knowed

His own range, and stayed in bounds

And left work for them 'at showed

Talents fer it – same as his

Gifts regardin' coon-dogs is.

Hounds of ev'ry mungerl breed

Ever whelped on earth! – Had these

Yeller kind, with punkin-seed

Marks above theyr eyes – and fleas

Both to sell and keep! – Also