Thinkin' o' nothin', I've heerd ole folks say, Is a hard kind o' dooty in its way: It's thinkin' every thin' you ever knew, Or ever hearn, to make your feelins blue. I sot there tryin' thet on for a spell: I thought o' the Rebellion, then o' Hell, Which some folks tell ye now is jes' a metterfor, (A the'ry, p'raps, it wun't feel none the better for); I thought o' Reconstruction, wut we'd win Patchin' our patent self-blow-up agin: I thought of this 'ere milkin' o' the wits, So Ef much a month, warn't givin' Natur' fits, folks warn't druv, findin' their own milk fail, To work the cow thet hes an iron tail, An' ef idees 'thout ripenin' in the creep, Till finally I must ha' fell asleep. Our lives in sleep are some like streams thet glide 'Twixt flesh an' sperrit boundin' on each side, Where both shores' shadders kind o' mix an' mingle In sunthin' thet ain't jes' like either single; An' when you cast off moorin's from To-day, An' down towards To-morrer drift away, The imiges thet tengle on the stream Make a new upside-down'ard world o' dream: Sometimes they seem like sunrisestreaks an' warnin's O' wut'll be in Heaven on Sabbathmornin's, An', mixed right in ez ef jest out o' spite, Sunthin' thet says your supper ain't gone right. I'm gret on dreams, an' often, when I wake, An' yit, ef 'tain't gut rusty in the jints, It's safe to trust its say on certin pints: It knows the wind's opinions to a T, An' the wind settles wut the weather'll be." "I never thought a scion of our stock Could grow the wood to make a weathercock; When I wuz younger'n you, skurce more'n a shaver, No airthly wind," sez he, "could make me waver!" (Ez he said this, he clinched his jaw an' forehead, Hitchin' his belt to bring his swordhilt forrard.) – "Jes' so it wuz with me," sez I, "I swow, When I wuz younger'n what you We hain't to punish only, but to keep, An' the cure's gut to go a cent❜ry deep." "Wal, milk-an'-water ain't the best o' glue," Sez he, "an' so you'll find before you're thru; Ef reshness venters sunthin', shillyshally Lozes ez often wut's ten times the vally. Thet exe of ourn, when Charles's neck gut split, Opened a gap thet ain't bridged over yit: Slav'ry's your Charles, the Lord hez gin the exe" "Our Charles," sez I, "hez gut eight million necks. The hardest question ain't the black man's right, The trouble is to 'mancipate the white; One's chained in body an' can be sot free, But t'other's chained in soul to an idee: It's a long job, but we shall worry thru it; Ef bag'nets fail, the spellin'-book must du it." "Hosee," sez he, "I think you're goin' to fail: The rettlesnake ain't dangerous in the tail; This 'ere rebellion's nothin' but the rettle, You'll stomp on thet an' think you've won the bettle; Slavery thet's the fangs an' thinkin' head, It's An' ef you want selvation, cresh it dead, An' cresh it suddin, or you'll larn by waitin' Thet Chance wun't stop to listen to debatin' ! "God's truth!" sez I,-"an' ef I held the club, An' knowed jes' where to strike, but there's the rub!". "Strike soon," sez he, deadly ailin', 66 or you'll be Folks thet's afeared to fail are sure o' failin'; God hates your sneakin' creturs thet believe Once from these heights I shrank, beheld afar, In the soft lap of quiet, easy days. I might (I will not hide it) once I might Have lost, in the warm whirlpools of your voice, The sense of Evil, the stern cry of But truth has steered me free, and Not with the triumph that looks back to jeer At the poor herd that call their misery bliss; But as a mortal speaks when God is near, I drop you down my answer; it is this: Whether man's thought can find too lofty steeps For woman's scaling, care not I to know; But when he falters by her side, or creeps, She must not clog her soul with him to go. Who weds me must at least with equal pace Sometimes move with me at my being's height: To follow him to his more glorious place, His purer atmosphere, were keen delight. You lure me to the valley: men should call Up to the mountains, where the air is clear. Win me and help me climbing, if at all! Beyond these peaks rich harmonies I hear, |