People Going By by Elizabeth Madox Roberts

Before they come I hear their talk / And hear their feet go on the walk.

Some go fast and some go slow, / And some of them I almost know.

In mornings they are going down / To see somebody in the town.

Or Mrs. Warner hurries past; / She has to go and come back fast.

She walks by quick and will not stop, / To go to the church with the cross on top.

I think she goes there every day / To take her rosary and pray.

And one of them is Mr. Jim -- / And the big white dog that follows him.

And one is lame; that's Uncle Mells; / He takes off warts by mumbling words, / And he can lay on spells.

Or maybe night is almost come, / And Miss Jane Anne is going home.

And by her side walks Mr. Paul; / They go along with far-off looks / And hardly ever talk at all.

Or Murry's child comes up this way / To carry milk to poor Miss May

That lives in Wells's other house, / Or Joe is driving home his cows.

And some go fast and some go slow, / And some of them I almost know.

I can feel them almost speak to me, / When they pass by our tree.