Page 56 - Poetry-Country

And let these dealers very plainly see
What a warm friend they have in Madge McGee.

And they’ll remember me when next the year
Piles high its drifts of snow at door and gate;
When all the earth is bleak and sad and drear,
With gold or gem they’ll make my heart elate.

I only do them justice when I state
They make my life all roseate and green.
And I—I make them opulent and great—
I, their commission culinary queen.

—R.K. Munkittrick (Harper’s Monthly, 1891)

Christmas Day
(Uncle Seth loquitur)

A good old-fashioned Chris’mas, with the logs upon the hearth,
The table filled with feasters, an’ the room a-roar ‘ith mirth,
With the stockin’s crammed to bu’stin’, an’ the medders piled ‘ith snow—
A good old-fashioned Chris’mas like we had so long ago!

Now that’s the thing I’d like to see ag’in afore I die,
But Chris’mas in the city here—it’s different, oh my!
With the crowded hustle-bustle of the slushy, noisy street,
An’ the scowl upon the faces of the strangers that you meet.

Oh, there’s buyin’, plenty of it, of a lot o’ gorgeous toys;
An’ it take a mint o’money to please modern girls and boys.
Why, I mind the time a jack-knife an’ a toffy-lump for me
Made my little heart an’ stockin’ jus’ chock-full o’ Chris’mas glee.

~ 54 ~