BISHOP JOSS'S OWN DOMESTIC SYSTEM.
If all the women of my house can't fondly pull
together,
And each as meek as any mouse, look out for
stormy weather!—
No, no, I don't approve at all of humouring my
women,
And building lots of boxes small for each one
to grow grim in.
I teach them jealousy's a sin, and solitude's just
bearish,
They nuss each other lying-in, each other's babes
they cherish;
It is a family jubilee, and not a selfish plea-
sure,
Whenever one presents to me another infant
treasure!
All ekal, all respected, each with tokens of
affection,
They dwell together, soft of speech, beneath their
lord's protection;
And if by any chance I mark a spark of shindy
raising,
I set my heel upon that spark,—before the house
gets blazing!
Now that's what Clewson should have done, but
couldn't, thro' his folly,
For even when Tabby's help was won, he wasn't
much more jolly.
Altho' she stopt the household fuss, and husht
the awful riot,
The old contrairy stupid Cuss could not enj'y
the quiet.
His house was peaceful as a church, all solemn,
still, and saintly;
And yet he'd tremble at the porch, and look
about him faintly;
And tho' the place was all his own, with hat in
hand he'd enter,
Like one thro' public buildings shown, soft
treading down the centre.
Still, things were better than before, though
somewhat trouble-laden,.
When one fine day unto his door there came a
Yankee maiden.
"Is Brother Clewson in?" she says; and when
she saw and knew him,
The stranger gal to his amaze scream'd out and
clung unto him.
Then in a voice all thick and wild, exclaim'd that
gal unlucky,
"O Sir, I'm Jason Jones's child—he's dead—
stabb'd in Kentucky!
And father's gone, and O I've come to you
across the mountains."
And then the little one was dumb, and Abe's
eyes gushed like fountains....
He took that gal into his place, and kept her as
his daughter—
Ah, mischief to her wheedling face and the bad
wind that brought her!