Project Gutenberg's Pipes O'Pan at Zekesbury, by James Whitcomb Riley

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Title: Pipes O'Pan at Zekesbury

Author: James Whitcomb Riley

Release Date: October 31, 2004 [EBook #13908]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PIPES O'PAN AT ZEKESBURY ***

Produced by Curtis A. Weyant, Project Manager, Keith M. Eckrich, Post-Processor, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team

PIPES O' PAN AT ZEKESBURY

BY

JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY

INDIANAPOLIS

BOWEN-MERRILL CO., PUBLISHERS

1895

TO MY BROTHER JOHN A. RILEY WITH MANY MEMORIES OF THE OLD HOME

CONTENTS

PAGE

AT ZEKESBURY 13

DOWN AROUND THE RIVER POEMS

DOWN AROUND THE RIVER 37

KNEELING WITH HERRICK 39

ROMANCIN' 40

HAS SHE FORGOTTEN 43

A' OLD PLAYED-OUT SONG 45

THE LOST PATH 47

THE LITTLE TINY KICKSHAW 48

HIS MOTHER 49

KISSING THE ROD 50

HOW IT HAPPENED 51

BABYHOOD 53

THE DAYS GONE BY 54

MRS. MILLER 57

RHYMES OF RAINY DAYS

THE TREE-TOAD 79

A WORN-OUT PENCIL 80

THE STEPMOTHER 82

THE RAIN 83

THE LEGEND GLORIFIED 84

WHUR MOTHER IS 85

OLD MAN'S NURSERY RHYME 86

THREE DEAD FRIENDS 88

IN BOHEMIA 91

IN THE DARK 93

WET-WEATHER TALK 94

WHERE SHALL WE LAND 96

AN OLD SETTLER'S STORY 101

SWEET-KNOT AND GALAMUS

AN OLD SWEETHEART 159

MARTHY ELLEN 161

MOON-DROWNED 163

LONG AFORE HE KNOWED 164

DEAR HANDS 166

THIS MAN JONES 167

TO MY GOOD MASTER 169

WHEN THE GREEN GITS BACK 170

AT BROAD RIPPLE 171

WHEN OLD JACK DIED 172

DOC SIFERS 174

AT NOON—AND MIDNIGHT 177

A WILD IRISHMAN 181

RAGWEED AND FENNEL

WHEN MY DREAMS COME TRUE 205

A DOS'T O' BLUES 206

THE BAT 208

THE WAY IT WUZ 209

THE DRUM 212

TOM JOHNSON'S QUIT 214

LULLABY 216

IN THE SOUTH 217

THE OLD HOME BY THE MILL 219

A LEAVE-TAKING 221

WAIT FOR THE MORNING 222

WHEN JUNE IS HERE 223

THE GILDED ROLL 227

PIPES O' PAN AT ZEKESBURY

  The pipes of Pan! Not idler now are they
  Than when their cunning fashioner first blew
  The pith of music from them: Yet for you
  And me their notes are blown in many a way
  Lost in our murmurings for that old day
  That fared so well, without us.—Waken to
  The pipings here at hand:—The clear halloo
  Of truant-voices, and the roundelay
  The waters warble in the solitude
  Of blooming thickets, where the robin's breast
  Sends up such ecstacy o'er dale and dell,
  Each tree top answers, till in all the wood
  There lingers not one squirrel in his nest
  Whetting his hunger on an empty shell.

AT ZEKESBURY.

The little town, as I recall it, was of just enough dignity and dearth of the same to be an ordinary county seat in Indiana—"The Grand Old Hoosier State," as it was used to being howlingly referred to by the forensic stump orator from the old stand in the courthouse yard—a political campaign being the wildest delight that Zekesbury might ever hope to call its own.

Through years the fitful happenings of the town and its vicinity went on the same—the same! Annually about one circus ventured in, and vanished, and was gone, even as a passing trumpet-blast; the usual rainy-season swelled the "Crick," the driftage choking at "the covered bridge," and backing water till the old road looked amphibious; and crowds of curious townsfolk straggled down to look upon the watery wonder, and lean awe-struck above it, and spit in it, and turn mutely home again.

The usual formula of incidents peculiar to an uneventful town and its vicinity: The countryman from "Jessup's Crossing," with the cornstalk coffin-measure, loped into town, his steaming little gray-and-red-flecked "roadster" gurgitating, as it were, with that mysterious utterance that ever has commanded and ever must evoke the wonder and bewilderment of every boy. The small-pox rumor became prevalent betimes, and the subtle aroma of the assafoetida-bag permeated the graded schools "from turret to foundation-stone;" the still recurring exposé of the poor-house management; the farm-hand, with the scythe across his shoulder, struck dead by lightning; the long-drawn quarrel between the rival editors culminating in one of them assaulting the other with a "sidestick," and the other kicking the one down stairs and thenceward ad libitum; the tramp, suppositiously stealing a ride, found dead on the railroad; the grand jury returning a sensational indictment against a bar-tender non est; the Temperance outbreak; the "Revival;" the Church Festival; and the "Free Lectures on Phrenology, and Marvels of Mesmerism," at the town hall. It was