Uncle Jotham's Boarder 



" He had an old bait-net of thin, rotten stuff 

 That a minner could bite his way through; 

 But. he never went fishin'— at least, in the way 



That fishermen gen'ally do; 

 But he carried that bait-net wherever he went; 

 The handle wasj'inted in two. 



44 And the bottles and boxes that chap fetched along! 



Why, a doctor would never want more; 

 If they held pills and physic, he 'd got full enough 



To fit out a medicine-store. 

 And he 'd got heaps of pins, dreffle lengthy and slirr^ 



Allers droppin' about on the floor. 



"Well, true as I live, that old feller just spent 



His hull days in loafin' about 

 And pickin' up hoppers and roaches and flies — 



Not to use for his bait to ketch trout, 

 But to kill and stick pins in and squint at and aH. 



He was crazy 's a coot, th' ain't no doubt. 



'He 'd see a pour miller a-flyin' along,— 



The commonest, every-day kind, — 

 And he 'd waddle on arter it, fat as he was, 



And foller up softly behind, 

 Till he 'd flop that-air bait-net right over its head. 



And 1 'd laugh till nigh out of my mind. 



"Why, he 'd lay on the ground for an hour at a stretd. 



And scratch in the dirt like a hen; 

 He 'd scrape all the bark off the bushes and trees, 



And turn the stones over; and then 

 He 'd peek under logs, or he 'd pry into holes. 



1 'm glad there ain't no more sech men. 



' My wife see a box in his bedroom, one day, 



Jest swarmin' with live caterpillars; 

 He fed 'em on leaves off of all kinds of trees — 



The ellums and birches and willers; 

 And he 'd got piles of boxes, chock-full to the top 



With crickets and bees and moth-millers. 



"I asked him, one time, what his business might b«. 



Of course, I fust made some apology. 

 He tried to explain, but such awful big words! 



Sorto' forren, outlandish, and collegey. 

 *S near 's 1 can tell, 'stead of enterin' a trade, 



He was tryin' to jest enter mology. 



~34 



