An', stranger—hold on till I tell you; there now!—
It laid little Joe in the ground.
I know'd then I'd got to send Hetty off East
If I cared about keepin' her here;
She pined to a shadder, an' moped by his grave,
Though her eyes brighter grew, and more clear.
If you'd seen her poor face when I told her I'd go
And take her home visitin'! Well,
I'll never forget how she put out her hands
Into mine, an', fur joy, cried a spell.
She didn't feel strong, though, that week or the next,
An' the cough an' the fever increased;
While softly she whispered—she couldn't speak loud—
"You'll take me by'm by, to the East?"
****
She never got East; any further than that
(And a hand pointed off to the mound);
But I'm goin' to take her and Joe, when I go,
To her father's old buryin'-ground.
This, stranger, 's the reason I'm willin' to sell;
You can buy at a bargain, you see;
It's mighty good land fur a settler to own,
But it looks like a graveyard to me.
