Father's Letter by Eugene Field

I'm going to write a letter to our oldest boy who went / Out West last spring to practise law and run for president; / I'll tell him all the gossip I guess he'd like to hear, / For he hasn't seen the home-folks for going on a year! / Most generally it's Marthy does the writing, but as she / Is suffering with a felon, why, the job devolves on me -- / So, when the supper things are done and put away to-night, / I'll draw my boots and shed my coat and settle down to write.

I'll tell him crops are looking up, with prospects big for corn, / That, fooling with the barnyard gate, the off-ox hurt his horn; / That the Templar lodge is doing well -- Tim Bennett joined last week / When the prohibition candidate for Congress came to speak; / That the old gray woodchuck's living still down in the pasture-lot, / A-wondering what's become of little William, like as not! / Oh, yes, there's lots of pleasant things and no bad news to tell, / Except that old Bill Graves was sick, but now he's up and well.