In Spring, when the green gits back in the trees, And the sun comes out and _stays_, And yer boots pulls on with a good tight squeeze, And you think of yer bare-foot days; When you _ort_ to work and you want to _not_, And you and yer wife agrees It's time to spade up the garden-lot, When the green gits back in the trees-- Well! work is the least o' _my_ idees When the green, you know, gits back in the trees! When the green gits back in the trees, and bees Is a-buzzin' aroun' ag'in In that kind of a lazy go-as-you-please Old gait they bum roun' in; When the groun's all bald whare the hay-rick stood, And the crick's riz, and the breeze Coaxes the bloom in the old dogwood, And the green gits back in the trees,-- I like, as I say, in sich scenes as these, The time when the green gits back in the trees! When the whole tail-fethers o' Wintertime Is all pulled out and gone! And the sap it thaws and begins to climb, And the swet it starts out on A feller's forred, a-gittin' down At the old spring on his knees-- I kindo' like jest a-loaferin' roun' When the green gits back in the trees-- Jest a-potterin' roun' as I--durn--please-- When the green, you know, gits back in the trees! HOW IT HAPPENED I got to _thinkin'_ of her--both her parunts dead and gone-- And all her sisters married off, and none but her and John A-livin' all alone thare in that lonesome sorto' way, And him a blame old bachelor, confirmder ev'ry day! I'd knowed 'em all, from childern, and theyr daddy from the time He settled in the neghborhood, and hadn't ary a dime Er dollar, when he married, fer to start housekeepin' on!-- So I got to _thinkin'_ of her--both her parunts dead and gone! I got to _thinkin'_ of her; and a-wundern what _she_ done That all _her sisters_ kep' a-gittin' married, one by one, And her without _no_ chances--and the best girl of the pack-- A' old maid, with her hands, you might say, tied behind her back! And _Mother_, too, afore she died,--_she_ ust to jest take on, When none of 'em wuz left, you know, but Evaline and John, And jest declare to goodness 'at the young men must be bline To not see what a wife they'd git ef they got Evaline! I got to _thinkin'_ of her: In my great affliction she Wuz sich a comfert to us, and so kind and neghborly,-- She'd come, and leave her housework, fer to he'p out little Jane, And talk of _her own_ mother 'at she'd never see again-- They'd sometimes _cry_ together--though, fer the most part, she Would have the child so rickonciled and happy-like 'at we Felt lonesomer'n ever when she'd putt her bonnet on And say she'd railly _haf_ to be a-gittin' back to John!