Dearest, full many a flower now lies withered by the path,
Their fragrance but a memory, the soul's sad aftermath—
The birds are flown, save now and then some loiterer thrills the way
With joyous bursts of lyric song born of the heart of May.
Ah, dearest, it is good-bye time for Summer and her train,
And many a golden hour will pass that ne'er shall come again—
But, dearest, Love with us abides tho' all the rest should go,
And in Love's garden, dearest one, there is no hint of snow.
[ELIZA CALVERT OBENCHAIN]
Mrs. Eliza Calvert Obenchain, ("Eliza Calvert Hall"), creator of Aunt Jane of Kentucky, was born at Bowling Green, Kentucky, February 11, 1856; and she has lived in that little city all her life. Miss Calvert was educated in the private schools of her town, and then spent a year at "The Western," a woman's college near Cincinnati, Ohio. Her first poems appeared in the old Scribner's, when John G. Holland was the editor; and her first prose papers were published in Kate Field's Washington. She was married to Professor William A. Obenchain, of Ogden College, Bowling Green, on July 8, 1885, and four children have been born to them. Aunt Jane of Kentucky (Boston, 1907), the memories of an old lady done into short stories, opens with one of the best tales ever written by an American woman, entitled Sally Ann's Experience. This charming prose idyl first appeared in the Cosmopolitan Magazine, for July, 1898, since which time it has been cordially commended by former President Roosevelt, has been reprinted in Cosmopolitan, The Ladies' Home Journal, and many other magazines, read by many public speakers, and finally issued as a single book in an illustrated edition de luxe (Boston, 1910). Many of the other stories in Aunt Jane of Kentucky are very fine, but Sally Ann is far and away superior to any of them. Mrs. Obenchain's The Land of Long Ago (Boston, 1909), was another collection of Aunt Jane stories. To Love and to Cherish (Boston, 1911), is the author's first and latest novel. Upon these four volumes Mrs. Obenchain's fame rests secure, but Sally Ann's Experience will be read and enjoyed when her other books have been forgotten. She struck a universal truth in this little tale, and the world will not willingly let it die. Her most recent work is a A Book of Hand-Woven Coverlets (Boston, 1912), a large and delightful volume on coverlet collecting and the study of coverlet making.
Bibliography. Cosmopolitan Magazine (July, 1908); The Bookman (October, 1910).
"SWEET DAY OF REST"[17]
[From Aunt Jane of Kentucky (Boston, 1907)]
"I ricollect some fifty-odd years ago the town folks got to keepin' Sunday mighty strict. They hadn't had a preacher for a long time, and the church'd been takin' things easy, and finally they got a new preacher from down in Tennessee, and the first thing he did was to draw lines around 'em close and tight about keepin' Sunday. Some o' the members had been in the habit o' havin' their wood chopped on Sunday. Well, as soon as the new preacher come, he said that Sunday wood-choppin' had to cease amongst his church-members or he'd have 'em up before the session. I ricollect old Judge Morgan swore he'd have his wood chopped any day that suited him. And he had a load o' wood carried down cellar, and the nigger man chopped all day long in the cellar, and nobody ever would 'a' found it out, but pretty soon they got up a big revival that lasted three months and spread 'way out into the country, and bless your life, old Judge Morgan was one o' the first to be converted; and when he give in his experience, he told about the wood-choppin', and how he hoped to be forgiven for breakin' the Sabbath day.
"Well, of course us people out in the country wouldn't be outdone by the town folks, so Parson Page got up and preached on the Fourth Commandment and all about that pore man that was stoned to death for pickin' up a few sticks on the seventh day. And Sam Amos, he says after meetin' broke, says he, 'It's my opinion that that man was a industrious, enterprisin' feller that was probably pickin' up kindlin'-wood to make his wife a fire, and,' says he, 'if they wanted to stone anybody to death they better 'a' picked out some lazy, triflin' feller that didn't have energy enough to work Sunday or any other day.' Sam always would have his say, and nothin' pleased him better'n to talk back to the preachers and git the better of 'em in a argument. I ricollect us women talked that sermon over at the Mite Society, and Maria Petty says: 'I don't know but what it's a wrong thing to say, but it looks to me like that Commandment wasn't intended for anybody but them Israelites. It was mighty easy for them to keep the Sabbath day holy, but,' says she, 'the Lord don't rain down manna in my yard. And,' says she, 'men can stop plowin' and plantin' on Sunday, but they don't stop eatin', and as long as men have to eat on Sunday, women'll have to work.'