PADRAIC COLUM
950 An Old Woman of the Roads r jTo own the hearth and stool and all' The heap'd-up sods upon the fire, The pile of turf against the wall'
��o.
��To have a clock with weights and chains And pendulum swinging up and down'
A dresser filled with shining delph,
Speckled with white and blue and brown '
I could be busy all the day
Clearing and sweeping hearth and floor; And fixing on their shelf again
My white and blue and speckled store '
I could be quiet there at night
Beside the fire and by myself, Sure of a bed and loth to leave
The ticking clock and the shining dclph'
Och' but I'm weary of mist and dark,
And roads where there 's never a house or bush,
And tired I am of bog and road
And the crying wind and the lonesome hush'
And I am praying to God on high, And I am praying Him night and day,
For a little house a house of my own
Out of the wind's and the rain's way.
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