As light as the tips of the drops of the rain,
Out to Old Aunt Mary's "?

Now can you see them as they cross a pasture field? Here they pass an old dead poplar tree, where woodpeckers "hopped awry," and peeked out at them around the trunk of the tree. Now they come to a “clearing," or a place where the trees have been cut down and the brush has been made ready for burning, and here a buzzard flops up from the ground and after rising in the sky," lolls and circles" as the boys go by.

Then they come out to the road again, where they meet farmers driving plodding teams with the heavy, rattling farm wagons.

Now they "raise a cloud of dust" by dragging their toes in the dust in the road. They have no cares, for their hearts are ahead, "out to Old Aunt Mary's," and they know what good things await them when they get there.

Now watch the boys! They are almost there! They see the cabin, with the gourd vines running up the wall and over the clapboard roof. And there, in the open door, is dear Old Aunt Mary, waiting for them!

Aunt Mary knew that boys are always hungry, and we feel sure that the very first thing she did was to get them something to eat. Just read in stanza 6 what they had to eat! And what they thought,

Do you think that Old Aunt Mary thought so, too, after feeding these two hungry boys?

And then the fun! And especially the "old spring-house," where a cool stream from the spring ran right through it, and

where the crocks of milk stood in the cold water as it gurgled around them. What fun it was!

We must not forget that the man at the table is really writing this letter to tell his brother, "so far away," that Old Aunt Mary died that morning. But he knows how sad this will make his gray haired brother and he dreads to write it. So he begins by reminding his brother of

"Those old days of the lost sunshine of youth,"

when they were little boys and went "visiting out to Old Aunt Mary's," and of the many happy times that they had together there. But he can delay the sad tidings no longer, and he now has to tell his brother that Aunt Mary "fell asleep this morning," and that as she was dying, her mind, like his own, went wandering, and she thought that they were little boys again, and that she was waiting for them to come, and that she died whispering, to come!

"Tell

the

boys

As you read the poem, try to see all of this just as the man did who wrote the letter and remember that this poem really is the letter. Study carefully the meanings of the following words:

languor (lǎn'ger): a state of list- tremulous ecstasies (ěk'stȧ-siz): less dreaminess.

awry (d-ri'): turned or twisted

toward one side.

so happy that they were trembling with great joy.

OUT TO OLD AUNT MARY'S

1

Wasn't it pleasant, O brother mine,

In those old days of the lost sunshine

Of youth - when the Saturday's chores were through, And the "Sunday's wood" in the kitchen, too,

And we went visiting, "me and you,"
Out to Old Aunt Mary's?

2

It all comes back so clear to-day!
Though I am as bald as you are gray,
Out by the barn-lot and down the lane
We patter along in the dust again,
As light as the tips of the drops of the rain,
Out to Old Aunt Mary's.

3

We cross the pasture, and through the wood, 10 Where the old gray snag of the poplar stood, Where the hammering "red-heads" hopped awry, And the buzzard "raised" in the "clearing"-sky And lolled and circled, as we went by Out to Old Aunt Mary's.

4

15 And then in the dust of the road again;
And the teams we met, and the countrymen;
And the long highway, with sunshine spread
As thick as butter on country bread,

Our cares behind, and our hearts ahead

Out to Old Aunt Mary's.

5

Why, I see her now in the open door

Where the little gourds grew up the sides and o'er

OUT TO OLD AUNT MARY'S

49

The clapboard roof!

And her face ah, me!

Wasn't it good for a boy to see

And wasn't it good for a boy to be
Out to Old Aunt Mary's?

The jelly

6

the jam and the marmalade,

And the cherry- and quince-"preserves" she made!
And the sweet-sour pickles of peach and pear,
With cinnamon in 'em, and all things rare! -
And the more we ate was the more to spare,
Out to Old Aunt Mary's.

7

Ah! was there, ever, so kind a face
And gentle as hers, or such a grace

Of welcoming, as she cut the cake

Or the juicy pies that she joyed to make
Just for the visiting children's sake

Out to Old Aunt Mary's?

8

The honey, too, in its amber comb
One finds only in an old farm-home;
And the coffee, fragrant and sweet, and ho!
So hot that we gloried to drink it so,

With spangles of tears in our eyes, you know-
Out to Old Aunt Mary's.

5

10

1:

50

JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY

9

And the romps we took, in our glad unrest ! —
Was it the lawn that we loved the best,
With its swooping swing in the locust trees,
Or was it the grove, with its leafy breeze,
5 Or the dim hay-mow, with its fragrancies
Out to Old Aunt Mary's?

10

And then, in the garden, near the side
Where the bee-hives were and the path was wide,
The apple-house-like a fairy cell-

10 With the little square door we knew so well,
And the wealth inside but our tongues could tell
Out to Old Aunt Mary's.

11

And the old spring-house, in the cool green gloom
Of the willow trees, and the cooler room

15 Where the swinging shelves and the crocks were kep
Where the cream in a golden languor slept,
While the waters gurgled and laughed and wept
Out to Old Aunt Mary's.

12

And as many a time have you and I
20 Barefoot boys in the days gone by
Knelt, and in tremulous ecstasies
Dipped our lips into sweets like these,
Memory now is on her knees

Out to Old Aunt Mary's.