And the strangest thing, i jing!

Wuz, he didn’t drink a thing,—

But jes got down to bizness, like he someway wanted to,

When Lide married him, like they warned her not to do!

When Lide married him—er, ruther, had be’n married

A little up’ards of a year—some feller come and carried

That hired girl away with him—a ruther stylish feller

In a bran-new green spring-wagon, with the wheels striped red and yeller:

And he whispered, as they driv

To’rds the country, “Now we’ll live!”—