4I
SELECTIONS FROM       THE POETS.28
HOW BETSEY AND I MADE UP.*                    And then she went to foolin' alttle with a cup,
And intently readin' a newspaper, a-holdin' it wrong side up.
BY- WILL M. CARLETON.                   And when I'd done my supper, I drawed the agreement out,
IVE us your hand, Mr. Lawyer: how do you do to-day?      And give it to her without a word, for she knw at 'twas
You drew up that paper-I s'pose you want your pay.   a
Don't cut down your figures; make it an X or a V ;       Athen hummd a little tn      tnw and then anoe
For that 'era written agreement was just the maki' of me.  Was bu'sted by some animal that hoppedupin my
Goin'homethatevenn' I ell ou Iwas lue,Then B6tsey, she got her specs from off the mnantelsef
Thonin' oflme  t rusanwhat Ievengin'    to telyuoa le  And read the article over quite softly to herself;
And if my hosses hadn't been the steadiest team alive,   Re   it by ltt and little, for her eyes
They'd 've tipped me over, certain, for I could n't see where  And lawyers' writin' ain't no print,  y when it's coIl
to drive.
And      she'd read a little, she gave my arm a touch,
No-for I waslaborin' under a heavy load;                 Andkindly said she wasafrai I was 'lowin' her too much;
No - for I was travelin' an entirely different road      But when she was through shewent for me, her face astreamin
For I was a-tracin' over the path of our lives ag'in,          with tears,
And            we missed the way, and where we might have  And kissed me for the first time in over twenty years
I don't know what you'll think, Sir- I didn't come to in-
And       a corner we 4d turne that just to a quarrel led,     quire-
W     I oughtto'ye held my temper, and driven straight ahead;  But I picked up that  t and stuffed it in the ire;
And the more Itogtit over the more these memorie cae,    And I told her we'd bury the hatchet alongside of the cow;
And the more I struck the  inion that I was the most to bm.  And we struck an agreement never toha  anther row.
At          had     forgottenkeptrisin' i my mind,       And Itold hin           I would' sakcossor
Of little mtesbetwx us, where Betsey was good and kind ;  If half the cokqi h    os    a  rknalt     ms
And these things fahed all through me, as you know things  And she said, in egards ito hv, we'd try    rits
sometimes will                                     Py startin a branch etbih  nt andrun'itheonat.
When a feller' a.lone ia the darkness, and everything is st i.
And so wve sat atli'thre-qarters of the nig