Poems (Bell)/Old Hundred
OLD HUNDRED.Recitation.(Dedicated to Miss Nellie Bean, Elocutionist, and recited by her at Meredith, N. H., in 1889.)
What! Never heard tell of Old Hundred?My, whar' hev you been all your days?Thought everyone knew of Old HundredAnd would give him a word of praise!Why, he's one of the old coach-horsesThat ply 'tween the "Harbor" and Ossipee,A faithful old beast, too, as ever you'd wish to see.'Twas in the year eighteen and seventy-sixThat a mighty tough blizzard came over,And lucky it was for everythingThat was in and under cover.The coach started off on wheels that morn'(For there wa'nt no sign then of snow)But along towards arternoonIt commenced to drift and blow.Twan't long before it kivered the roadway,And soon it got high as the wall,And the trees were heavily-laden.Alike the short and the tall.I says to myself as I was sitting here:"I guess I know what I'd better do:""Go get a neighbor and horse and goMeet the coach and help her through."So, I went out into the barnAnd up to Old Hundred's stall—Well sir, you could have knockedMe down with a feather for,There stood there no horse at all!There wa'nt no sign as I could seeOf his having gone down through the floor,And so it must have been thatHe went out through the door.But no one saw him go,There was the mystery,And the question now arose,Where in the world is he?Well, we took another horseAnd an extra harness along(In case, with the hard pulling,Part of theirs might go wrong),And then we started off, neighbor Brown and I.Well, I guess we tipped out twenty timesAfore we came to "Squam,"But men don't mind a "tipple" muchAnd the excitement kept us warm.Putty soon we sighted the coach,And a time she was having, too,Tell you what, 'twas about allShe could do to pull through! And then I saw a sight—I never wasSo astonished in all my life—Would'nt have been more so to haveSeen there my own wife.There stood good Old Hundred!As firm and staunch as the tune!And I guess, by the appearance of things,That he'd got there none too soon.Well, we put the extra harness on him,And hitched on my horse, too,But 'twas then 'bout as much as we could do.(I left my sleighAt a farmhouse over the way,To go after the next day).Well, we pulled into town about midnightAnd tired and hungry were weAs we sat down to the "Sandwich House" supperAnd the steaming cup of tea.And the way the hot cakes disappeared.Adown our throats like the wind,And when we got up front the tableNot a crumb on it could yot find."Old Hundred living now?" you ask?O, yes! But he's old and lazy now,Don't work him much, onlyIn the hay field, and once in a whileTo the plough.O, it won't be long, I don't suppose,Before he'll go where all good horses do,And I suppose about that timeThis old fellow will bePassing in his checks, too!