So the Deacon inquired of the village folk Where he could find the strongest oak, That couldn't be split nor bent nor broke---- That was for spokes and floor and sills; He sent for lancewood to make the thills; The crossbars were ash, from the straightest trees, The panels of white-wood, that cuts like cheese, But lasts like iron for things like these; The hubs of logs from the "Settler's ellum"---- Last of its timber--they couldn't sell 'em, Never an ax had seen their chips, And the wedges flew from between their lips, Their blunt ends frizzled like celery-tips; Step and prop-iron, bolt and screw, Spring, tire, axle, and linchpin, too, Steel of the finest, bright and blue; Thoroughbrace bison-skin, thick and wide; Boot, top, dasher, from tough old hide Found in the pit when the tanner died. That was the way he "put her through"---- "There!" said the Deacon, "naow she'll dew!" Do! I tell you, I rather guess She was a wonder and nothing less! Colts grew horses, beards turned gray, Deacon and Deaconess dropped away, Children and grandchildren--where were they? But there stood the stout old one-hoss shay As fresh as on Lisbon-earthquake day! Eighteen hundred--it came and found The Deacon's masterpiece strong and sound. Eighteen hundred increased by ten---- "Hahnsum kerridge" they called it then. Eighteen hundred and twenty came---- Running as usual; much the same. Thirty and forty at last arrived, And then come fifty, and FIFTY-FIVE. Little of all we value here Wakes on the morn of its hundredth year Without both feeling and looking queer. In fact, there's nothing that keeps its youth, So far as I know, but a tree and truth. (This is a moral that runs at large; Take it--You're welcome--No extra charge.) First of November--the Earthquake-day---- There are traces of age in the one-hoss shay, A general flavor of mild decay, But nothing local, as one may say. There couldn't be--for the Deacon's art Had made it so like in every part That there wasn't a chance for one to start. For the wheels were just as strong as the thills, And the floor was just as strong as the sills, And the panels just as strong as the floor, And the whipple-tree neither less nor more, And the back crossbar as strong as the fore, And spring and axle and hub _encore_. And yet, _as a whole_, it is past a doubt In another hour it will be _worn out_! First of November, 'Fifty-five! This morning the parson takes a drive. Now, small boys, get out of the way! Here comes the wonderful one-hoss shay, Drawn by a rat-tailed, ewe-necked bay. "Huddup!" said the parson--Off went they. The parson was working his Sunday's text---- Had got to _fifthly_, and stopped perplexed At what the--Moses--was coming next.