StoryTitle("caps", "Driving Home The Cows") ?>
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Out of the clover and blue-eyed grass", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "He turned them into the river lane;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "One after another he let them pass,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Then fastened the meadow bars again.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Under the willows and over the hill,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "He patiently followed their sober pace;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The merry whistle for once was still,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And something shadowed the sunny face.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Only a boy! and his father had said", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "He never could let his youngest go:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Two already were lying dead,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Under the feet of the trampling foe.", "") ?>
PagePoem(161, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But after the evening work was done,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And the frogs were loud in the meadow-swamp,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Over his shoulder he slung his gun,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And stealthily followed the footpath damp.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Across the clover, and through the wheat,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "With resolute heart and purpose grim:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Though the dew was on his hurrying feet,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And the blind bat's flitting startled him.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Thrice since then had the lanes been white,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And the orchards sweet with apple-bloom;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And now, when the cows came back at night,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The feeble father drove them home.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For news had come to the lonely farm", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "That three were lying where two had lain;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the old man's tremulous, palsied arm", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Could never lean on a son's again.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The summer day grew cool and late:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "He went for the cows when the work was done;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But down the lane, as he opened the gate,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "He saw them coming one by one:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Brindle, Ebony, Speckle, and Bess,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Shaking their horns in the evening wind;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Cropping the buttercups out of the grass,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "But who was it following close behind?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Loosely swung in the idle air", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The empty sleeve of army blue;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And worn and pale, from the crisping hair,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Looked out a face that the father knew.", "") ?>
PagePoem(162, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For close-barred prisons will sometimes yawn,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And yield their dead unto life again;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the day that comes with a cloudy dawn,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "In golden glory at last may wane.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The great tears sprang to their meeting eyes;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "For the heart must speak when the lips are dumb,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And under the silent evening skies", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Together they followed the cattle home.", "") ?>
PoemAttribution("100", SmallCapsText("Kate Putnam Osgood.")) ?>
PoemEnd() ?>