Sue Dunham, the crazy woman, I don’t see her! Poor Sue, she waz not
alwus welkum, but no one turned her away, a night’s lodgeing no one
refused, she was even butiful still, when i waz a boy, but i shrunk from
the flash ov her misterious eye.
The old folks knu her story, it waz that sad one, so often told, and so
soon forgotten, a mans perfidy.
Sue Dunham raves no more, but in the farther korner, just bak ov the
little one story church, whare the ded lay the thikest, lays Sue.
A weep in willow, sown bi aksident, hangs over her grave, and on her hed
stone, theze words, almost knawed away bi time, kan be made out, “Sue
Dunham, aged 59.”
Parson Powell, who led hiz flok bi the side ov still waters who wet with
hallowed drops at christnings, who jined in wedlok, and who asked God to
take the departing ones, I miss him too; peacefully he sleeps, just bak
ov the little one story church.
Deakon Tucker, who sold sugar bi the pound, and mollassis bi the pint,
who delt in whale ile, and bar sope, who kept raizen and razor straps,
who could mezzure a yard ov kotton, ov kaliko, tew a thred, and who, 4th
ov Julys, sold 3 fire krackers, tew us boys, for a penny, what haz bekum
ov the deakon?
Years ago, he fled, not far away, but cluss up tew the back wall ov the
little one story church, near to Parson Powell.
An odd phellow waz Ez Farnham, and withal az keen at a trade az a
hornet, Them that swopped hosses with Ez once, didn’t hanker tew do it
again, he waz honest, but oh! how fatal tew dicker. No one now, in the
whole village remember him, he haz gone whare they don’t giv, nor git
boot, they put him in the halfaker, just bak ov the little one story
church.
Job Pierson iz ded too, and so is Job’s wife, and all ov Job’s sons, and
dauters.
I go up, and I go down, the good old village of Pordunk, the people all
stare at me, az i stop _here_ and stop _thare_, to say tew miself, “here
it waz that Lige Turner, threw Dave Larkins, 40 years ago, in a wrassle
on the village green, and thare stood the old town pump.”
“Here old Beverly, the barber, shaved for three cents a shave, and
thare, Burbanks haff soled boots for a quarter.”
“Here--let me see! was it here? Yes Old Mother Benneway sold taffy here,
each stick at least 8 inches long, and made out of Deakon Tuckers best
Porto Rico molassis.”
“Thare stood the little red skool hous, right thare, it waz the forks ov
a road then, it is the korner of a block now.
“Who kan tell me whare Daniel Purdy the skool master lives now, no one!
I hav asked a dozen, but no one remember Daniel Purdy.
“It iz a sad thing tew be a skoolmaster, no one ever seems tew kno whare
they go when yu miss them. They just seem to depart that’s all. I never
knu one tew die, and be buried.”
Ah, it iz pleasant!--it is sad, to go bak tew the village of Pordunk,
thare is more people now thare, than there waz when i waz a boy, but how
different are they,--or how different am I.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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