O THE Raggedy Man! He works fer Pa; An’ he’s the goodest man ever you saw! He comes to our house every day, An’ waters the horses, an’ feeds ’em hay; An’ he opens the shed――an’ we all ist laugh When he drives out our little old wobble-ly calf; An’ nen――ef our hired girl says he can―― He milks the cow fer ’Lizabuth Ann.―― Ain’t he a’ awful good Raggedy Man? Raggedy! Raggedy! Raggedy Man! W’y, the Raggedy Man――he ’s ist so good, He splits the kindlin’ an’ chops the wood; An’ nen he spades in our garden, too, An’ does most things ’t _boys_ can’t do.―― He clumbed clean up in our big tree An’ shooked a’ apple down fer me―― An’ ’nother ’n’, too, fer ’Lizabuth Ann―― An’ ’nother ’n’, too, fer the Raggedy Man.―― Ain’t he a’ awful kind Raggedy Man? Raggedy! Raggedy! Raggedy Man! An’ the Raggedy Man, he knows most rhymes, An’ tells ’em, ef I be good, sometimes: Knows ’bout Giunts, an’ Griffuns, an’ Elves, An’ the Squidgicum-Squees ’at swallers therselves! An’, wite by the pump in our pasture-lot, He showed me the hole ’at the Wunks is got, ’At lives ’way deep in the ground, an’ can Turn into me, er ’Lizabuth Ann! Ain’t he a funny old Raggedy Man? Raggedy! Raggedy! Raggedy Man! The Raggedy Man――one time, when he Wuz makin’ a little bow’-n’-orry fer me, Says, “When you’re big like your Pa is, Air _you_ go’ to keep a fine store like his―― An’ be a rich merchunt――an’ wear fine clothes?―― Er what _air_ you go’ to be, goodness knows?” An’ nen he laughed at ’Lizabuth Ann, An’ I says, “’M go’ to be a Raggedy Man!―― I’m ist go’ to be a nice Raggedy Man!” Raggedy! Raggedy! Raggedy Man! ¹ By permission of The Century Co. Illustration: (‡ decoration) FRANCIS BRET HARTE. THE POET OF THE MINING CAMP AND THE WESTERN MOUNTAINS. THE turbulent mining camps of California, with their vicious hangers-on, have been embalmed for future generations by the unerring genius of Bret Harte, who sought to reveal the remnants of honor in man, and loveliness in woman, despite the sins and vices of the mining towns of our Western frontier thirty or forty years ago. His writings have been regarded with disfavor by a religious class of readers because of the frequent occurrence of rough phrases and even profanity which he employs in his descriptions. It should be remembered, however, that a faithful portrait of the conditions and people which he described could hardly have been presented in more polite language than that employed.