Explore "The Drouth" by Payson Sibley Wild on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Buggosh I never seen it dryer 'n 'tis / Ri't now down this 'ere Skillet way; / It's scassly rained a drop sence 'long in Joon, / An' gittin' dryer every day. / We got our corn in early 'n May, an' seen / It mos'ly drownded out, an' then / We planted it onct more an' watched it grow / An' stick out spiky leaves again. / A little later Bill 'e sez ter me / In one them joky little talks: / "We'll hev ter git a ladder when Fall comes / Ter reach the ears on them thar stalks. " / It shorely looked like that 'a' way ontil / The drouth begun ter hit us hard, / An' fennel, hog-weed, pusly, dock an' sich, / An' even plantain in the yard- / The sort o' stuff ye jes' cain't kill 'f ye try- / Was withered wisps o' nothin' 't all.
Ez time went on 'twas suthin' pretty fierce: / Pitch sizzled on the hoss barn wall; / The road was jest a streak o' smoky dust, / An' every time a lizzie passed / The awf'lest clouds come rollin' int' the house, / An' made us feel like bein' gassed; / "Four Mile" was dry 's a sermon, caked an' cracked / 'Cept here an' thar a scummy pool, / An' even in the deepest woods 'twas hot / An' gaspy, stiflin', never cool; / The wallers all dried out, an' flies was thick / An' noisy ez a swarm o' bees; / The cistern water got so brown an' warm / Ter drink it meant ter drink diseese; / An' all our corn-wal, git it straight-the corn / Was like ol' Zekel's dream long sence, / A valley full o' rattlin' skelertons / Thet made ye skeered ter cross the fence!