Lester Shepard Parker

Nancy MacIntyre Lester Shepard Parker

Book Excerpt: ...and left me, I can't plan just what to do. Saw Tom Frothingham this mornin', He says Johnson's gone off, too. My old mother used to tell me, When I lagged at any task, "Keep on working, do no shirking, You will bring the thing to pass." That advice has been my motto: Everything that I've begun, I've stayed with it, sick or weary, Till the job was squarely done. But this case is kind o' different; Though I ain't the kind that grieves, How you goin' to work that motto When the job gets up and leaves?2S'pose, in thinkin' and decidin', I refuse to do my part;-- Just sit down and let my mem'ry Finish breaking up my heart-- S'pose I give up like a coward, Let the world say I ain't game, 'Cause by leavin' I should forfeit My poor eighty-acre claim. I ain't 'fraid to do my duty If I'm clear what it's about, But this scrape is so peculiar That my mind's smoked up with doubt. I believe that Nancy loves me, And it may be she'll stay true; But I wonder why the blazes That durn Jo..