EARLY DAYS IN VERMONT by DANIEL LEAVENS CADY

I'VE read the settlers, bless their souls,
Would take an iron pan or pot
And go and borrow living coals,
And fetch 'em home alive and hot;
Jest think of coming through the woods,
With beasts a-following on your path,
And nothing but a can of coals
Between you and a panther's wrath!

But what I started out to say
Is, that in newly settled earth,
You're borrowing something every day
And lending, too, for all you're worth;
It gets to be a habit soon,
Like that unthrifty city streak,
Of hocking whatsoe'er you have
With Uncle Abraham every week.

In them dependent days, I s'pose,
That what he saw and didn't own,
Upset a settler's eyes and nose
And instantly he "forced a loan"
Of footstove, emptyings, hetchel, swifts,
A bearmeat sirloin, sampler, sled,
And e'en the copper coins they laid
Upon the eyelids of the dead.

They borrowed runnet, milk and tub,
And kettle, paddle, lye and corn;
They borrowed mug and apple shrub
And shot and gun and powderhorn;
A parish wedding meant a shower
Of strictly drummed-up benefits,
For to and fro the spoused ones went
A-borrowing griddle, grease and grits.

But, as the man who owns two pigs
Abjures his socialistic views,
So settler Smart and settler Spriggs,
A-getting wealthy, oft refused
To lend their chattels, goods and wares
To settlers Squawman, Dub and Slack,
Till now it takes about a week
To borrow jest a carpet tack.

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