Then flung in clear water to lie in state—
Each dainty piece met with the same hard fate.
“There!” and she gave a look of conscious pride
At the rinsing-bucket, so deep and wide,
Then wiping the suds from each rounded arm,
She turned to the youth with a smile so warm;
“I have kept you waiting, excuse me please—
The soap suds just ruin such goods as these.”
“And you are so fond of finery, Nan,
Nice dresses, and furbelows,” he began.
“Ah, maybe I am, of a truth,” she said,
And each sunflower nodded its golden head.
“Well, Ned Brown’s getting rich,” John’s words came slow,
“And, he’s loved you a long while as you know;
My house and my acres, I held them fast,
Was so stubborn over them to the last,
For when my father was carried forth,
And the men were asking, ‘what was he worth?’
I knew that they said, with a nod and a smile,
As they whispered together all the while,