Explore "Farmer Whipple -- Bachelor" by James Whitcomb Riley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
It's a mystery to see me -- a man o' fifty-four, / Who's lived a cross old bachelor fer thirty year' and more -- / A-lookin' glad and smilin'! And they's none o' you can say / That you can guess the reason why I feel so good to-day!
I must tell you all about it! But I'll have to deviate / A little in beginnin', so's to set the matter straight / As to how it comes to happen that I never took a wife -- / Kindo' "crawfish" from the Present to the Springtime of my life!