"MYLO JONES'S WIFE" 68 ON A SPLENDUD MATCH 71 OLD JOHN CLEVENGER ON BUCKEYES 72 THE HOSS 78 EZRA HOUSE 82 A PEN-PICTUR' 86 WET-WEATHER TALK 90 THOUGHTS ON A PORE JOKE 93 A MORTUL PRAYER 94 THE FIRST BLUEBIRD 96 EVAGENE BAKER 97 ON ANY ORDENARY MAN 100 TOWN AND COUNTRY 101 LINES WRIT FER ISAAC BRADWELL 103 DECORATION DAY ON THE PLACE 104 THE TREE-TOAD 107 THE ROSSVILLE LECTUR' COURSE 109 WHEN THE GREEN GITS BACK IN THE TREES 112 HOW IT HAPPENED 114 A DOS'T O' BLUES 117 THE OLD HOME BY THE MILL 119 THE WAY IT WUZ 121 PAP'S OLD SAYIN' 125 ROMANCIN' 128 AN OLD SETTLER'S STORY 133 DIALECT IN LITERATURE 195 Originally contributed to THE FORUM--reprinted here by permission. "THE OLD SWIMMIN'-HOLE" AND 'LEVEN MORE POEMS BY BENJ. F. JOHNSON, OF BOONE _The delights of our childhood is soon passed away, And our gloryus youth it departs,-- And yit, dead and burried, they's blossoms of May Ore theyr medderland graves in our harts. So, friends of my bare-footed days on the farm, Whether truant in city er not, God prosper you same as He's prosperin' me, Whilse your past haint despised er fergot._ _Oh! they's nothin', at morn, that's as grand unto me As the glorys of Nachur so fare,-- With the Spring in the breeze, and the bloom in the trees, And the hum of the bees ev'rywhare! The green in the woods, and the birds in the boughs, And the dew spangled over the fields; And the bah of the sheep and the bawl of the cows And the call from the house to your meals!_