Oh! tell me a tale of the airly days-- <br />Of the times as they ust to be; <br />'Piller of Fi-er' and 'Shakespeare's Plays' <br />Is a' most too deep fer me! <br />I want plane facts, and I want plane words, <br />Of the good old-fashioned ways, <br />When speech run free as the songs of birds <br />'Way back in the airly days. <br /> <br />Tell me a tale of the timber-lands-- <br />Of the old-time pioneers; <br />Somepin' a pore man understands <br />With his feelins's well as ears. <br />Tell of the old log house,--about <br />The loft, and the puncheon flore-- <br />The old fi-er-place, with the crane swung out, <br />And the latch-string thrugh the door. <br /> <br />Tell of the things jest as they was-- <br />They don't need no excuse!-- <br />Don't tech 'em up like the poets does, <br />Tel theyr all too fine fer use!-- <br />Say they was 'leven in the fambily-- <br />Two beds, and the chist, below, <br />And the trundle-beds that each helt three, <br />And the clock and the old bureau. <br /> <br />Then blow the horn at the old back-door <br />Tel the echoes all halloo, <br />And the childern gethers home onc't more, <br />Jest as they ust to do: <br />Blow fer Pap tel he hears and comes, <br />With Tomps and Elias, too, <br />A-marchin' home, with the fife and drums <br />And the old Red White and Blue! <br /> <br />Blow and blow tel the sound draps low <br />As the moan of the whipperwill, <br />And wake up Mother, and Ruth and Jo, <br />All sleepin' at Bethel Hill: <br />Blow and call tel the faces all <br />Shine out in the back-log's blaze, <br />And the shadders dance on the old hewed wall <br />As they did in the airly days.<br /><br />James Whitcomb Riley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-tale-of-the-airly-days/
