The Meadow Road by Joseph C. Lincoln — Read

Just a simple little picture of a sunny country road Leading down beside the ocean's pebbly shore, Where a pair of patient oxen slowly drag their heavy load, And a barefoot urchin trudges on before: Yet I'm dreaming o'er it, smiling, and my thoughts are far away 'Mid the glorious summer sunshine long ago, And once more a happy, careless boy, in memory I stray Down a little country road I used to know.

I hear the voice of "Father" as he drives the lumbering steers, And the pigeons coo and flutter on the shed, While all the simple, homelike sounds come whispering to my ears, And the cloudless sky of June is overhead; And again the yoke is creaking as the oxen swing and sway, The old cart rattles loudly as it jars, Then we pass beneath the elm trees where the robin's song is gay, And go out beyond the garden through the bars;