u can guess the reason why I feel so good to-day!

I must tell you all about it! But I'll have to deviate
A little in beginnin', so's to set the matter straight
As to how it comes to happen that I never took a wife--
Kind o' "crawfish" from the Present to the Springtime of my life!

I was brought up in the country: Of a family of five--
Three brothers and a sister--I'm the only one alive,--
Fer they all died little babies; and 'twas one o' Mother's ways,
You know, to want a daughter; so she took a girl to raise.

The sweetest little thing she was, with rosy cheeks, and fat--
We was little chunks o' shavers then about as high as that!
But someway we sort o' _suited_-like! and Mother she'd declare
She never laid her eyes on a more lovin' pair

Than _we_ was! So we growed up side by side fer thirteen year',
And every hour of it she growed to me more dear!--
W'y, even Father's dyin', as he did, I do believe
Warn't more affectin' to me than it was to see her grieve!

I was then a lad o' twenty; and I felt a flash o' pride
In thinkin' all depended on _me_ now to pervide
Fer Mother and fer Mary; and I went about the place
With sleeves rolled up--and workin', with a mighty smilin' face.--

Fer _sompin' else_ was workin'! but not a word I said
Of a certain sort o' notion that was runnin' through my head,--
"Someday I'd mayby marry, and _a brother's_ love was one
Thing--_a lover's_ was another!" was the way the notion run!

I remember onc't in harvest, when the "cradle-in'" was done--
When the harvest of my summers mounted up to twenty-one
I was ridin' home with Mary at the closin' o' the day--
A-chawin' straws and thinkin', in a lover's lazy way!

And Mary's cheeks was burnin' like the sunset down the lane:
I noticed she was thinkin', too, and ast her to explain.
Well--when she turned and _kissed_ me, _with her arms around me--law!_
I'd a bigger load o' heaven than I had a load o' straw!

I don't p'tend to learnin', but I'll tell you what's a fact,
They's a mighty truthful sayin' somers in a' almanack--
Er _somers_--'bout "puore happiness"--perhaps some folks'll laugh
At the idy--"only lastin' jest two seconds and a half."--

But it's jest as true as preachin'!--fer that was _a sister's_ kiss,
And a sister's lovin' confidence a-tellin' to me this:--
"_She_ was happy, _bein' promised to the son o' farmer Brown_."--
And my feelin's struck a pardnership with sunset and went down!

I don't know _how_ I acted--I don't