Only a Country Weekly.

“Only a Country Weekly!”

      The words were careless said,

With a little curl of the pouting lip

      And a toss of the golden head.–

“Only a Country Weekly!

      How can you tease me so?

To read of grass and dust and things,

      And folks we do not know”

Ah! Pretty, petted darling,

      Your world is very small;

Of grass, and dust and country things,

      You do not know at all.

Of orchards where the apple blooms–

      Drop rosy flakes of snow,

And girlish cheeks are just as red

      And just as sweet I know.

It tells you where marshmallows grow,

      The wintergreen’s retreats–

That flavors all your bon-bons,

      And other dainty treats;

Into the deep, green, mossy woods,

      Where chewing gum trees grow–

And brown nuts in September

      All there treasured wealth bestow.

The “weekly cheers the lonely heart

      Far in remotest dells,

It laughs and jests with lovers,

      And rings their marriage bells;

It aids the learned scholar

      To mature a new resolve,

To brood his infant fancies

      And a mighty thought evolve.

It tells the farmer how to plant,

      And how to change his soil;

It tell him how the markets are

      Rewards for all his toil.

It tells the busy house-wife

      How to make the nicest things–

How to buy and cook her dinner,

      And other thoughts it brings.

It brings the latest fashions

      To smiling, sweet sixteen,

And riddles to laughing Johnny

      While romping on the green.

Of its various possibilities,

      Acquirements great and small,

The “weekly” knows so many things,

      I could not tell them all.

Ah dear! You well may look at me

      With open eyed surprise,

To learn that grass, and dust, and things

      Are nearer paradise.

Then welcome here the weekly–

      Or even every day.

And the editor is the wisest man

      Who makes his paper pay.

                              Mary A. Stranger

    PETOSKEY RECORD

            J.C. BONTECOU, Editor.

        WEDNESDAY MARCH 5, 1890.