(@3As Mr. Francis Bret Harte might have woven it into a touching tale of a western gentleman in a red shirt.@1) Brown o' San Juan, Stranger, I'm Brown. Come up this mornin' from 'Frisco -- Be'n a-saltin' my specie-stacks down. Be'n a-knockin' around, Fer a man from San Juan, Putty consid'able frequent -- Jes' catch onter that streak o' the dawn! Right thar lies my home -- Right thar in the red -- I could slop over, stranger, in po'try -- Would spread out old Shakspoke cold dead. Stranger, you freeze to this: there ain't no kinder gin-palace, Nor no variety-show lays over a man's own rancho. Maybe it hain't no style, but the Queen in the Tower o' London, Ain't got naathin' I'd swop for that house over thar on the hill-side. Thar is my ole gal, 'n' the kids, 'n' the rest o' my live-stock; Thar my Remington hangs, and thar there's a griddle-cake br'ilin' -- For the two of us, pard -- and thar, I allow, the heavens Smile more friendly-like than on any other locality. Stranger, nowhere else I don't take no satisfaction. Gimme my ranch, 'n' them friendly old Shanghai chickens -- I brung the original pair f'm the States in eighteen-'n'-fifty -- Gimme me them and the feelin' of solid domestic comfort. Yer parding, young man -- But this landscape a kind Er flickers -- I 'low 'twuz the po'try -- I thought that my eyes hed gone blind. Take that pop from my belt! Hi, thar! -- gimme yer han' -- Or I'll kill myself -- Lizzie -- she's left me -- Gone off with a purtier man! Thar, I'll quit -- the ole gal An' the kids -- run away! I be derned! Howsomever, come in, pard -- The griddle-cake's thar, anyway. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CANCIONEROS: 2 by CRISTOBAL DE CASTILLEJO THE ALLEY. AN IMITATION OF SPENSER by ALEXANDER POPE ON SEEING THE SUN SHINE ... MY WINDOW FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE YEAR by LUCY AIKEN ON NANUS COUNTED ON AN ANT by DECIMUS MAGNUS AUSONIUS SONG FOR THE LONDON VOLUNTEERS by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD SLUMBER FAIRIES by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE BREAKING POINT by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET |