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HOME AGAIN WITH ME

By James Whitcomb Riley

Drawings by

Howard Chandler Christy

Decorations by Franklin Booth

Indianapolis

The Bobbs-Merrill Company

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BRAUNWORTH & CO.

BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERS

BROOKLYN, N. Y.

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DEDICATION

HIS LOVE OF HOME

"As {0014}love of native land," the old man said,

'Er stars and stripes a-wavin' overhead,

Er nearest kith-and-kin, er daily bread,

A Hoosier's love is for the old homestead."

HOME AGAIN WITH ME

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|I'M {0015}a-feelin' ruther sad,

Fer a father proud and glad

As I am--my only child

Home, and all so rickonciléd!--

```Feel so strange-like, and don't know

```What the mischief ails me so!--

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```'Stid {0020}o' _bad_, I ort to be

```Feelin' good _pertickerly_--

```Yes, and extry thankful, too,---

```'Cause my nearest kith-and-kin,

```My Elviry's schoolin' 's through,

```And I' got her home ag'in--

`````Home ag'in with me!

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My {0024}Elviry's schoolin' 's through,

And I' got her home ag'in --

```Same as ef her mother'd bin

```Livin', I have done my best

```By the girl, and watchfulest;

```Nussed her--keerful' as I could--

```From a baby, day and night,--

```Drawin' on the neighberhood

```And the women-folks as light

```As needsessity 'u'd 'low--

```'Cept in "teethin'," onc't, and fight

```Through black-measles.....

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Same as ef her mother'd bin

Livin', I have done my best

`````Don't know now

```How we ever saved the child!

```Doc _hed_ give her up, and said

```(As I stood there by the bed

```Sort o' foolin' with her hair

```On the hot wet piller there)

```"Wuz no use!"--And at them-air

```Very words she waked and smiled--

```Yes, and _knowed_ me. And that's where

```I broke down, and simply jes

```Bellered like a boy--I guess!--

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```_Women_ claimed I did, but I

```Alius helt I _didn't_ cry

```But wuz laughin',--and I _wuz_,--

```(Men _don't_ cry like _women_ does!)

```Well, right then and there I felt

```'T 'uz her mother's doin's, and,

```Jes like to myse'f, I knelt,

```Whisperin' "_I understand_."...

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35

```So I've raised her, you might say,

```Stric'ly in the narrer way

```'At her mother walked therein--

```Not so quite _religiously_,

```Yit still strivin'-like to do

```Ever'thing a father _could_

```Do he knowed the _mother_ would

```Ef she'd lived.--And now all's through

```And I' got her home ag'in--

`````Home ag'in with me!=



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```And I' bin so lonesome, too--

```Here o' late, especially,--

```"Old Aunt Abigail," you know,

```Ain't no company;--and so

```Jes the hired hand, you see--

```Jonas--like a relative

```More--sence he come here to live

```With us, nigh ten year' ago.

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```Still he don't count much, you know.

```In the line o' company--

```Lonesome, 'peared-like, 'most as me!

```So, as _I_ say, I' bin so

```Special lonesome-like and blue,

```With Elviry, like she's bin,

```'Way so much, last two er three

```Year'.--But now she's home ag'in--

`````Home ag'in with me!

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```Driv in fe'r her yisterday,

```Me and Jonas--gay and spry,--

```We jes cut up, all the way!--

```Yes, and sung!--tel, blame it! I

```Keyed my voice up 'bout as high

```As when--days 'at I wuz young--

```"Buckwheat-notes" wuz all they sung

```Jonas bantered me, and 'greed

```To sing one 'at town-folks sing

```Down at Split Stump 'er High-Low--

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```Some new "ballet," said, 'at he'd

```Learnt--about "The Grapevine Swing."

```And when _he_ quit, _I_ begun

```To chune up my voice and run

```Through the what's-called "scales" and "do

```Sol-me-rays" I _ust_ to know--

```Then let loose old favor_ite_ one,

```"Hunters o' Kentucky!" _My!_

```Tel I thought the boy would _die!_

```And we _both_ laughed......

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`````Yes, and still

```Heerd _more_ laughin', top the hill;

```Fer we'd _missed_ Elviry's train,

```And she'd lit out 'crosst the fields--

```Dewdrops dancin' at her heels,--

```And cut up old Smoots's lane

```So's to meet us. And there in

```Shadder o' the chinkypin,

```With a danglin' dogwood-bough

```Bloomin' 'bove her--See her now!--

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```Sunshine sort o' flickerin' down

```And a kind o' laughin' all

```Round her new red parasol,

```Try'n' to git at _her!_--well--like

```_I_ jumped out and showed 'em how!

```Yes, and jes the place to strike

```That-air mouth o' hern--as sweet

```As the blossoms breshed her brow

```Er sweet-williams round her feet---

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```White and blushy, too, as she

```"Howdy'd" up to Jonas and

```Jieuked her head and waved her hand.

```"_Hey!_" says I, as she bounced in

```The spring-wagon, reachin' back

```To give _me_ a lift, "_whoop-ee! _"

```I-says-ee, "_you're home agin--

`````Home agin with me!_"

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```Lord! how _wild_ she wuz and glad,

```Gittin' home!--and things she had

```To inquire about, and talk--

```Plowin', plantin', and the stock--

```News o' neighberhood; and how

```Wuz the Deem-girls doin' now,

```Sence that-air young chicken-hawk

```They was "tamin'" soared away

```With their settin'-hen, one day?--

```(Said she'd got Marne's postal-card

```'Bout it, very day 'at she

```Started home from Bethany.)

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```How wuz pro-duce--eggs, and lard?--

```Er wuz stores still claimin' "hard

```Times," as usual? And, says she,

```Troubled-like, "How's Deedie--say?

```Sence pore child e-loped away

```And got back, and goin' to 'ply

```Fer school-license by and by--

```And where's 'Lijy workin' at?

```And how's  'Aunt' and 'Uncle Jake'?

```How wuz 'Old Maje'--and the cat?

```And wuz Marthy's baby fat

```As his 'Humpty-Dumpty' ma!--

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```Sweetest thing she ever saw!--

```Must run 'crosst and see 'em, too,

```Soon as she turned in and got

```Supper fer us--smokin'-hot--

```And the 'dishes' all wuz through.--"

```_Sich_ a supper! W'y, I set

```There and et, and et, and et!--

```Jes et on, tel Jonas he

```Pushed his chair back, laughed, and says,

```"I could walk _his_ log!"

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`````And we

```All laughed then, tel 'Viry she

```Lit the lamp--and I give in!--

```Riz and kissed her: "Heaven bless

```You!" says I--"you're home ag'in--

```Same old dimple in your chin,

```Same white apern," I-says-ee,

```"Same sweet girl, and good to see

```As your _mother_ ust to be,--

```And I' got you home ag'in--

`````Home ag-'in with me!"...

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`````And by and by

```Heerd Elviry, soft and low,

```At the organ, kind o' go

```A mi-anderin' up and down

```With her fingers 'mongst the keys-

```"Vacant Chair" and "Old Camp-

`````Groun'."...

```Dusk was moist-like, with a breeze

```Lazin' round the locus'-trees...

```Heerd the hosses champin', and

```Jonas feedin'--and the hogs--

```Yes, and katydids and frogs--

```And a tree-toad, som'er's...

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`````Heerd

```Also whipperwills.--My land!--

```All so mournful ever'where--

```Them out here, and her in there,

```That the whole thing railly 'peared

```'Most like 'tendin' _Services!_

```_Anyway_, I must 'a' jes

```Kind o' drapped asleep, I guess;

```'Cause when Jonas must 'a' passed

```Me, a-comin' in, I knowed

```Nothin' of it--yit it seemed

```Sort o' like I kind o' dreamed

```'Bout him, too, a-slippin' in,

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```And a-watchin' back to see

```Ef I _wuz_ asleep--and then

```Passin' in where 'Viry wuz--

```And where, I declare, it does

```'Pear to me I heerd him say,

```Wild and glad and whisperin'--

```'Peared-like heerd him say, says-ee

```"Ah! I' got you home ag'in--

````Home ag'in witn me!"

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End of Project Gutenberg's Home Again With Me, by James Whitcomb Riley