III

As I built cob-houses with small cousins on the floor:

(The talk was not meant for me).

Daguerreotypes shone. The back log sizzled

And my grandmother traced the family tree.

Then she swept to the proverbs of Campbell again.

And we glanced at the portrait of that most benign of men

Looking down through the evening gleam

With a bit of Andrew Jackson’s air,

More of Henry Clay