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Title: The Happiest Man In Ioway
Author: Rupert Hughes [
More Titles by Hughes]
Jes' down the road a piece, 'ith dust so deep
It teched the bay mare's fetlocks, an' the sun
So b'ilin' hot, the peewees dassn't peep,
Seemed like midsummer 'fore the spring's begun!
An' me plumb beat an' good-for-nothin'-like
An' awful lonedsome fer a sight o' you ...
I come to that big locus' by the pike,
An' she was all in bloom, an' trembly, too,
With breezes like drug-store perfumery.
I stood up in my sturrups, with my head
So deep in flowers they almost smothered me.
I kind o' liked to think that I was dead ...
An' if I hed 'a' died like that to-day,
I'd 'a' b'en the happiest man in Ioway.
For what's the use't o' goin' on like this?
Your pa not 'lowin' me around the place ...
Well, fust I knowed, I'd give' them blooms a kiss;
They tasted like Good-Night on your white face.
I reached my arms out wide, an' hugged 'em--say,
I dreamp' your little heart was hammerin' me!
I broke this branch off for a love-bo'quet;
'F I'd b'en a giant, I'd 'a' plucked the tree!
The blooms is kind o' dusty from the road,
But you won't mind. So, as the feller said,
"When this you see remember me"--I knowed
Another poem; but I've lost my head
From seein' you! 'Bout all that I kin say
Is--"I'm the happiest man in Ioway."
Well, comin' 'long the road I seen your ma
Drive by to town--she didn't speak to me!
An' in the farthest field I seen your pa
At his spring-plowin', like I'd ought to be.
But, knowin' you'd be here all by yourself,
I hed to come; for now's our livin' chance!
Take off yer apern, leave things on the shelf--
Our preacher needs what th' feller calls "romance."
'Ain't got no red-wheeled buggy; but the mare
Will carry double, like we've trained her to.
Jes' put a locus'-blossom in your hair
An' let's ride straight to heaven--me an' you!
I'll build y' a little house, an' folks'll say:
"There lives the happiest pair in Ioway."
[The end]
Rupert Hughes's short story: Happiest Man In Ioway
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