Summer: Uncle An’ Aunt
How happy uncle us’d to be
O’ zummer time, when aunt an’ he
O’ Zunday evenens, eaerm in eaerm,
Did walk about their tiny farm,
While birds did zing an’ gnats did zwarm,
Drough grass a’most above their knees,
An’ roun’ by hedges an’ by trees
Wi’ leafy boughs a-swayen.
His hat wer broad, his cwoat wer brown,
Wi’ two long flaps a-hangen down;
An’ vrom his knee went down a blue
Knit stocken to his buckled shoe;
An’ aunt did pull her gown-tail drough
Her pocket-hole, to keep en neat,
As she mid walk, or teaeke a seat
By leafy boughs a-zwayen.
An’ vu’st they’d goo to zee their lots
O’ pot-eaerbs in the geaerden plots;
An’ he, i’-may-be, by the hatch,
Would zee aunt’s vowls upon a patch
O’ zeeds, an’ vow if he could catch
Em wi’ his gun, they shoudden vlee
Noo mwore into their roosten tree,
Wi’ leafy boughs a-swayen.
An’ then vrom geaerden they did pass
Drough orcha’d out to zee the grass,
An’ if the apple-blooth, so white,
Mid be at all a-touch’d wi’ blight;
An’ uncle, happy at the zight,
Did guess what cider there mid be
In all the orcha’d, tree wi’ tree,
Wi’ tutties all a-swayen.
An’ then they stump’d along vrom there
A-vield, to zee the cows an’ meaere;
An’ she, when uncle come in zight,
Look’d up, an’ prick’d her ears upright,
An’ whicker’d out wi’ all her might;
An’ he, a-chucklen, went to zee
The cows below the sheaedy tree,
Wi’ leafy boughs a-swayen.
An’ last ov all, they went to know
How vast the grass in meaed did grow
An’ then aunt zaid 'twer time to goo
In hwome,—a-holden up her shoe,
To show how wet he wer wi’ dew.
An’ zoo they toddled hwome to rest,
Lik’ doves a-vleen to their nest
In leafy boughs a-swayen.
Other works by William Barnes...
