XXIII.
For mine is a time of peace, it is not often I
grieve;
I am oftener sitting at home in my father's farm
at eve:
And the neighbors come and laugh and gossip, and
so do I;
I find myself often laughing at things that have long
gone by.

XXIV.
To be sure the preacher says, our sins should make
us sad:
But mine is a time of peace, and there is Grace to
be had;
And God, not man, is the Judge of us all when life
shall cease;
And in this Book, little Annie, the message is one of
Peace.

XXV.
And age is a time of peace, so it be free from
pain,
And happy has been my life; but I would not live
it again.
I seem to be tired a little, that's all, and long for
rest;
Only at your age, Annie, I could have wept with the
best.

XXVI.
So Willy has gone, my beauty, my eldest-born, my
flower;
But how can I weep for Willy, he has but gone for
an hour,--
Gone for a minute, my son, from this room into the
next;
I, too, shall go in a minute. What time have I to
be vext?

XXVII.
And Willy's wife has written, she never was over-wise.
Get me my glasses, Annie: thank God that I keep
my eyes.
There is but a trifle left you, when I shall have past
away.
But stay with the old woman now: you cannot have
long to stay.

NORTHERN FARMER.

NORTHERN FARMER.
old style.
-------<>-------

I.
Wheer 'asta bean saw long and mea liggin' 'ere
aloan?
Noorse? thoort nowt o' a noorse: whoy, doctor's abean
an' agoan:
Says that I moant 'a naw moor yaale: but I beant a
fool:
Git ma my yaale, fur I beant a-gooin' to break my
rule.

II.
Doctors, they knaws nowt, for a says what's nawways
true:
Naw soort o' koind o' use to saay the things that
a do.
I've 'ed my point o' yaale ivry noight sin' I bean
'ere,
An' I've 'ed my quart ivry market-noight for foorty
year.

III.
Parson's a bean loikewoise, an' a sittin' ere o' my
bed.
'The amoighty's a taakin o' you to 'issen, my friend,'
'a said,
An' a towd ma my