Opening
HOME AGAIN WITH ME
By James Whitcomb Riley
Drawings by
Howard Chandler Christy
Decorations by Franklin Booth
Indianapolis
The Bobbs-Merrill Company
BRAUNWORTH & CO.
BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERS
BROOKLYN, N. Y.
Dedication
HIS LOVE OF HOME
"As {0014}love of native land," the old man said,
'Er stars and stripes a-wavin' overhead,
Er nearest kith-and-kin, er daily bread,
A Hoosier's love is for the old homestead."
HOME AGAIN WITH ME
|I'M {0015}a-feelin' ruther sad,
Fer a father proud and glad
As I am--my only child
Home, and all so rickonciléd!--
```Feel so strange-like, and don't know
```What the mischief ails me so!--
```'Stid {0020}o' bad, I ort to be
```Feelin' good pertickerly--
```Yes, and extry thankful, too,---
```'Cause my nearest kith-and-kin,
```My Elviry's schoolin' 's through,
```And I' got her home ag'in--
`````Home ag'in with me!
My {0024}Elviry's schoolin' 's through,
And I' got her home ag'in --
```Same as ef her mother'd bin
```Livin', I have done my best
```By the girl, and watchfulest;
```Nussed her--keerful' as I could--
```From a baby, day and night,--
```Drawin' on the neighberhood
```And the women-folks as light
```As needsessity 'u'd 'low--
```'Cept in "teethin'," onc't, and fight
```Through black-measles.....
Same as ef her mother'd bin
Livin', I have done my best
`````Don't know now
```How we ever saved the child!
```Doc hed give her up, and said
```(As I stood there by the bed
```Sort o' foolin' with her hair
```On the hot wet piller there)
```"Wuz no use!"--And at them-air
```Very words she waked and smiled--
```Yes, and knowed me. And that's where
```I broke down, and simply jes
```Bellered like a boy--I guess!--
```Women claimed I did, but I
```Alius helt I didn't cry
```But wuz laughin',--and I wuz,--
```(Men don't cry like women does!)
```Well, right then and there I felt
```'T 'uz her mother's doin's, and,
```Jes like to myse'f, I knelt,
```Whisperin' "I understand."...
35
```So I've raised her, you might say,
```Stric'ly in the narrer way
```'At her mother walked therein--
```Not so quite religiously,
```Yit still strivin'-like to do
```Ever'thing a father could
```Do he knowed the mother would
```Ef she'd lived.--And now all's through
```And I' got her home ag'in--
`````Home ag'in with me!=
```And I' bin so lonesome, too--
```Here o' late, especially,--
```"Old Aunt Abigail," you know,
```Ain't no company;--and so
```Jes the hired hand, you see--
```Jonas--like a relative
```More--sence he come here to live
```With us, nigh ten year' ago.
```Still he don't count much, you know.
```In the line o' company--
```Lonesome, 'peared-like, 'most as me!
```So, as I say, I' bin so
```Special lonesome-like and blue,
```With Elviry, like she's bin,
```'Way so much, last two er three
```Year'.--But now she's home ag'in--
`````Home ag'in with me!
```Driv in fe'r her yisterday,
```Me and Jonas--gay and spry,--
```We jes cut up, all the way!--
```Yes, and sung!--tel, blame it! I
```Keyed my voice up 'bout as high
```As when--days 'at I wuz young--
```"Buckwheat-notes" wuz all they sung
```Jonas bantered me, and 'greed
```To sing one 'at town-folks sing
```Down at Split Stump 'er High-Low--
```Some new "ballet," said, 'at he'd
```Learnt--about "The Grapevine Swing."
```And when he quit, I begun
```To chune up my voice and run
```Through the what's-called "scales" and "do
```Sol-me-rays" I ust to know--
```Then let loose old favor_ite_ one,
```"Hunters o' Kentucky!" My!
```Tel I thought the boy would die!
```And we both laughed......
`````Yes, and still
```Heerd more laughin', top the hill;
```Fer we'd missed Elviry's train,
```And she'd lit out 'crosst the fields--
```Dewdrops dancin' at her heels,--
```And cut up old Smoots's lane
```So's to meet us. And there in
```Shadder o' the chinkypin,
```With a danglin' dogwood-bough
```Bloomin' 'bove her--See her now!--
```Sunshine sort o' flickerin' down
```And a kind o' laughin' all
```Round her new red parasol,
```Try'n' to git at her!--well--like
```I jumped out and showed 'em how!
```Yes, and jes the place to strike
```That-air mouth o' hern--as sweet
```As the blossoms breshed her brow
```Er sweet-williams round her feet---
```White and blushy, too, as she
```"Howdy'd" up to Jonas and
```Jieuked her head and waved her hand.
```"Hey!" says I, as she bounced in
```The spring-wagon, reachin' back
```To give me a lift, "_whoop-ee! _"
```I-says-ee, "_you're home agin--
`````Home agin with me!_"
```Lord! how wild she wuz and glad,
```Gittin' home!--and things she had
```To inquire about, and talk--
```Plowin', plantin', and the stock--
```News o' neighberhood; and how
```Wuz the Deem-girls doin' now,
```Sence that-air young chicken-hawk
```They was "tamin'" soared away
```With their settin'-hen, one day?--
```(Said she'd got Marne's postal-card
```'Bout it, very day 'at she
```Started home from Bethany.)
```How wuz pro-duce--eggs, and lard?--
```Er wuz stores still claimin' "hard
```Times," as usual? And, says she,
```Troubled-like, "How's Deedie--say?
```Sence pore child e-loped away
```And got back, and goin' to 'ply
```Fer school-license by and by--
```And where's 'Lijy workin' at?
```And how's 'Aunt' and 'Uncle Jake'?
```How wuz 'Old Maje'--and the cat?
```And wuz Marthy's baby fat
```As his 'Humpty-Dumpty' ma!--
```Sweetest thing she ever saw!--
```Must run 'crosst and see 'em, too,
```Soon as she turned in and got
```Supper fer us--smokin'-hot--
```And the 'dishes' all wuz through.--"
```Sich a supper! W'y, I set
```There and et, and et, and et!--
```Jes et on, tel Jonas he
```Pushed his chair back, laughed, and says,
```"I could walk his log!"
`````And we
```All laughed then, tel 'Viry she
```Lit the lamp--and I give in!--
```Riz and kissed her: "Heaven bless
```You!" says I--"you're home ag'in--
```Same old dimple in your chin,
```Same white apern," I-says-ee,
```"Same sweet girl, and good to see
```As your mother ust to be,--
```And I' got you home ag'in--
`````Home ag-'in with me!"...
`````And by and by
```Heerd Elviry, soft and low,
```At the organ, kind o' go
```A mi-anderin' up and down
```With her fingers 'mongst the keys-
```"Vacant Chair" and "Old Camp-
`````Groun'."...
```Dusk was moist-like, with a breeze
```Lazin' round the locus'-trees...
```Heerd the hosses champin', and
```Jonas feedin'--and the hogs--
```Yes, and katydids and frogs--
```And a tree-toad, som'er's...
`````Heerd
```Also whipperwills.--My land!--
```All so mournful ever'where--
```Them out here, and her in there,
```That the whole thing railly 'peared
```'Most like 'tendin' Services!
```Anyway, I must 'a' jes
```Kind o' drapped asleep, I guess;
```'Cause when Jonas must 'a' passed
```Me, a-comin' in, I knowed
```Nothin' of it--yit it seemed
```Sort o' like I kind o' dreamed
```'Bout him, too, a-slippin' in,
```And a-watchin' back to see
```Ef I wuz asleep--and then
```Passin' in where 'Viry wuz--
```And where, I declare, it does
```'Pear to me I heerd him say,
```Wild and glad and whisperin'--
```'Peared-like heerd him say, says-ee
```"Ah! I' got you home ag'in--
````Home ag'in witn me!"