Explore "Bill on War" by Payson Sibley Wild on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
(_February, 1917_)
My Land, 'twas cold thet night I set with Bill / Around the iron stove het up red hot / An' Bill a-stokin' on't with all 'is mite. / He calls the room 'is "offis; " three four cheers, / A bench, farm jurnels layin' on a stand, / Some books on cattle-feedin'-Bill's he's up / Ter date on all thet stuff, tho' he aint hed / No the'ry trainin' in them farmin' schools- / A book on "Soils"-the same ez siles, I s'pose- / A walnut seckertry, some plants o' Laury's, / A lot o' calendars-with smartish women / In droopy longish gowns a-ridin' proud / High-sperr'ted colts along a river whar / A chap is ketchin' traouts ez fast ez he / Kin sling a worm, or mebbe it's a fly- / An' Bill's ol' double bar'l behind the door. / I've offen gassed with Bill in thet thar room / O' his when fokes was all a-bed 'n' asleep. / The frost was thicker'n cream on all the winders; / Occazh'nully they'd be a pane 'thout none, / Or kivered only ha'f, an' 'f I looked out, / Ez onct or twict I done, I seen a sight / Thet made me clean fergit how cold it was: / A sea o' white 'way down ter "Thirty-One," / With waves o' drifts piled ev'ry here an' thar; / An' _still_-Jerushy! Still's a mounting top / Up thar amongst them craters on the moon.