Ef you loves yo’ mammy,
    An’ you min’s yo’ pap,
  Ef you nevah wriggles
    Outen Sukey’s lap;
  Ef you says yo’ “Lay me”
    Evah single night
  ‘Fo’ dey tucks de kivers
    An’ puts out de light,
  Den de rain kin pattah
    Win’ blow lak a fan,
  But you need n’ bothah
    ’Bout de Boogah Man!

THE WRAITH

  Ah me, it is cold and chill
    And the fire sobs low in the grate,
  While the wind rides by on the hill,
    And the logs crack sharp with hate.

  And she, she is cold and sad
    As ever the sinful are,
  But deep in my heart I am glad
    For my wound and the coming scar.

  Oh, ever the wind rides by
    And ever the raindrops grieve;
  But a voice like a woman’s sigh
    Says, “Do you believe, believe?”

  Ah, you were warm and sweet,
    Sweet as the May days be;
  Down did I fall at your feet,
    Why did you hearken to me?

  Oh, the logs they crack and whine,
    And the water drops from the eaves;
  But it is not rain but brine
    Where my dead darling grieves.

  And a wraith sits by my side,
    A spectre grim and dark;
  Are you gazing here open-eyed
    Out to the lifeless dark?

  But ever the wind rides on,
    And we sit close within;
  Out of the face of the dawn,
    I and my darling,—­sin.

SILENCE

  ’T is better to sit here beside the sea,
    Here on the spray-kissed beach,
  In silence, that between such friends as we
    Is full of deepest speech.

WHIP-POOR-WILL AND KATY-DID

  Slow de night ‘s a-fallin’,
  An’ I hyeah de callin,
    Out erpon de lonesome hill;
  Soun’ is moughty dreary,
  Solemn-lak an’ skeery,
    Sayin’ fu’ to “whip po’ Will.”

  Now hit ‘s moughty tryin’,
  Fu’ to hyeah dis cryin’,
    ’Deed hit ‘s mo’ den I kin stan’;
  Sho’ wid all our slippin’,
  Dey ‘s enough of whippin’
    ‘Dout a bird a’visin’ any man.

  In de noons o’ summah
  Dey ’s anothah hummah
    Sings anothah song instid;
  An’ his th’oat ‘s a-swellin’
  Wid de joy o’ tellin’,
    But he says dat “Katy did.”

  Now I feels onsuhtain;
  Won’t you raise de cu’tain
    Ovah all de ti’ngs dat ’s hid? 
  W’y dat feathahed p’isen
  Goes erbout a-visin’
    Whippin’ Will w’en Katy did?

’LONG TO’DS NIGHT

    Daih ‘s a moughty soothin’ feelin’
      Hits a dahky man,
        ’Long to’ds night. 
    W’en de row is mos’ nigh ended,
      Den he stops to fan,
        ’Long to’ds night. 
  De blue smoke f’om his cabin is a-callin’ to him “Come;”
  He smell de bacon cookin’, an’ he hyeah de fiah hum;
  An’ he ’mence to sing, ‘dough wo’kin’ putty nigh done made him dumb,
        ’Long to’ds night.