Page 286 - The model orator, or, Young folks' speaker : containing the choicest recitations and readings from the best authors for schools, public entertainments, social gatherings, Sunday schools, etc. : including recitals in prose and verse ...

You’ve lived here many years, you .say— w ’y then maybe you know
The one I want ter ask about— she wuz Maltndv Gray;
Skule girls together, like ez not, you were long, long ago—
W hy do I ask ? W a’al now may I jo I wouldn’t like ter say*

I know my love wuz countrified, but Still ’twus warm an' true,
1 tried my beat ter tell her, but T think she guessed the same—
W 'y what's the matter— you look queer-— Malindy can't be you—-
Mai indy Gray— the one I loved— w’y say, is that your name ?

It is ! an’ you’re a ’ridder, livin' in the ole homestead ?
W 'y bless my heart— that’s mighty strange—-you know me now I gues
' Twas for your sake, believe me, that I wouldn’t ever wed-—
A n’ forty years I hev been true— that much I will confess,

I’m rayther blunt, Malindy, an’ perhayis I’m forward, too,
Rut s'pose we fix the ole house up 'fore S wallers home’ard fly,
A n ’ all my life that’s yet to be .shall be a life fur you,
A n! ’neath the roof where I wuk born, there let me stay an’ die,
H enry D a v e n p o r t .

SOMEBODY’S MOTHER.
T l l l i woman was old and ragged and gray,
And bent with the thill of the winter’s day;

The street was wet with a reeent snow,
And the woman's feet were aged and slow.

She stood at the crossing and waited long,
Alone, uncared for, amid the throng

Of human beings who passed her by,
Nor heeded the stance of liet: anxious eye.

Down the street, with laughter and shout,
Glad in the freedom of “ school let out/’