AN OUTING.
DOWN country lanes,
O’er treeless plains,
And seas of prairie grasses,
I wheel along,
With cheers and song
To every breeze that passes.
I leave the town,
Walls bare and brown,
The bustling, sordid masses—
The business boom
Of counting-room,
The dandies, dudes, and asses.
Awheel, awheel,
The miles I reel,
Afar from heated highways,
And odors greet
Of verdure sweet,
Along the country by-ways.
By fields of grain,
O’er daisy plain,
Adown the pretty valley;
By drowsy kine,
By cot and vine,
So joyfully I sally.
O, healthful steed!
My only creed,
Beyond dissent or doubting,
Is Nature’s way,
In holiday
Upon a summer outing.
Jay Gee.