LLY
(_pointing to the ox-yoke_)

You're fitter
sittin' than most folks standin'.

LINK
(_briskly_)

Oh, they can't
keep my two hands from makin' ox-yokes. That's
my second natur' sence I was a boy.

(_Again in the distance a bugle sounds._ LINK _starts._)

What's that?

POLLY
Why, that's the army veterans
down to the graveyard. This is Decoration
mornin': you ain't forgot?

LINK
So't is, so't is.
Roger, your young man--ha! (_chuckling_) he come and axed me
was I a-goin' to the cemetery.
"Me? Don't I look it?" says I. Ha! "Don't I look it?"

POLLY
He meant--to decorate the graves.

LINK
O' course;
but I must take my little laugh. I told him
I guessed I wa'n't persent'ble anyhow,
my mustache and my boots wa'n't blacked this mornin'.
I don't jest like t' talk about my legs.--
Be you a-goin' to take your young school folks,
Polly?

POLLY
Dear no! I told my boys and girls
to march up this way with the band. I said
I'd be a-stayin' home and learnin' how
to keep school in the woodpile here with you.

LINK
(_looking up at her proudly_)

Schoolma'am at seventeen! Some smart, I tell ye!

POLLY
(_caressing him_)

Schoolmaster, you, past seventy; that's smarter!
I tell 'em I learn from you, so's I can teach
my young folks what the study-books leave out.

LINK
Sure ye don't want to jine the celebratin'?

POLLY
No, _sir!_ We're goin' to celebrate right here,
and you're to teach me to keep school some more.

(_She holds ready for him the blue coat and hat._)

LINK
(_looking up_)

What's thar?

POLLY
Your teachin' rig.

(_She helps him on with it._)

LINK
The old blue coat!--
My, but I'd like to see the boys--(_gazing at the hat_) the Grand
Old Army Boys! (_dreamily_) Yes, we was boys: jest boys!