XXI. And Harry and Charlie, I hear them too--they sing to their team: Often they come to the door in a pleasant kind of a dream. They come and sit by my chair, they hover about my bed-- I am not always certain if they be alive or dead. XXII. And yet I know for a truth, there's none of them left alive; For Harry went at sixty, your father at sixty-five: And Willy, my eldest born, at nigh threescore and ten; I knew them all as babies, and now they're elderly men. XXIII. For mine is a time of peace, it is not often I grieve; I am oftener sitting at home in my father's farm at eve: And the neighbors come and laugh and gossip, and so do I; I find myself often laughing at things that have long gone by. XXIV. To be sure the preacher says, our sins should make us sad: But mine is a time of peace, and there is Grace to be had; And God, not man, is the Judge of us all when life shall cease; And in this Book, little Annie, the message is one of Peace. XXV. And age is a time of peace, so it be free from pain, And happy has been my life; but I would not live it again. I seem to be tired a little, that's all, and long for rest; Only at your age, Annie, I could have wept with the best. XXVI. So Willy has gone, my beauty, my eldest-born, my flower; But how can I weep for Willy, he has but gone for an hour,-- Gone for a minute, my son, from this room into the next; I, too, shall go in a minute. What time have I to be vext? XXVII. And Willy's wife has written, she never was over-wise. Get me my glasses, Annie: thank God that I keep my eyes. There is but a trifle left you, when I shall have past away. But stay with the old woman now: you cannot have long to stay. NORTHERN FARMER. NORTHERN FARMER. old style. -------<>------- I. Wheer 'asta bean saw long and mea liggin' 'ere aloan? Noorse? thoort nowt o' a noorse: whoy, doctor's abean an' agoan: Says that I moant 'a naw moor yaale: but I beant a fool: Git ma my yaale, fur I beant a-gooin' to break my rule. II. Doctors, they knaws nowt, for a says what's nawways true: Naw soort o' koind o' use to saay the things that a do. I've 'ed my point o' yaale ivry noight sin' I bean 'ere, An' I've 'ed my quart ivry market-noight for foorty year.