Minor punctuation errors have been corrected without notice. Printer's errors have been corrected, and the changes are listed at the end of the book. All other inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling has been retained.
OKLAHOMA SUNSHINE.
by
FREEMAN E. MILLER,
Author of "Oklahoma and other Poems," "Songs from the South-West Country," etc.
Stillwater, Oklahoma. The Advance Printing Company. 1905.
Copyright, 1905, by Freeman E. Miller. All Rights Reserved.
_The Gospel of Sunshine is the one Supreme Evangel, the Religion of Love is Mankind's most Universal Creed. They hold in their divine Baptisms the Winning of the Heart to Happiness, the Wooing of the Soul to Heaven._
_The Author._
Beginning with June 9, 1904, there was a column of verse and prose published in "The Stillwater Advance" under the caption "Oklahoma Sunshine." These were written in the moments of a busy life, amid the crowding of sterner things, and many of them found a wide circulation in the fugitive publications of the day. So many persons have offered expressions of being pleased and helped by them that they are here presented in a more permanent form. The following comprise the year from June, 1904, to June, 1905.
CONTENTS.
_VERSES._
PAGE.
A Busy Family, 4
A Blazing Future, 185
A Contented Farmer, 19
A Date With Joy, 265
A Happy Farmer, 299
A Jolly Good Game, 18
A Little of Love, 6
All Fool's Day, 249
A Memory, 232
A Modern Love Story, 276
A New Year's Resolution, 174
A Prayer, 29
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: Oklahoma Sunshine by Freeman E. Miller
- 2: 214 At the Turning of the Lane
- 3: 223 Kansas Has her Dander up
- 4: 127 That New Year Resolution
- 5: 90 The Weather Man's Mistakes
- 6: 34 When Canderdates Git After Pa
- 7: 14 Remembered by Santa Claus
- 8: Maketh moan Denied the Star
- 9: Night dreams and bright dreams
- 10: When the cotton's weedy and the days go wet
- 11: But be careful that you always Jog along
- 12: Jem set only Plymouth Rock eggs
- 13: And whether it's gladness or whether it's strife
- 14: Doan't tell me dat hell am away off yander
- 15: I've knowed some mighty fine scholars in figgers
- 16: I've got two yakers er cotton's dat's middlin' fine
- 17: There's a song for each sorrow
- 18: So the carpenter thought he would frighten him away
- 19: But the king thet lacks it will soon be uncrowned too
- 20: Dat com'p'omisin' bis'ness am a great thing
- 21: When the Dollar Pounds the Door
- 22: Don't you grumble at the weather
- 23: En fohty canderdates runnin' foh office
- 24: It's better to whistle than cry
- 25: When the roas'in' ears air plenty en the worter millons ripe
- 26: When the roas'in' ears air plenty en the worter millons ripe
- 27: You kin plant jimson weeds in the garden
- 28: There are joys never sullied with stain
- 29: Hebben come en settles down On de millon vine
- 30: Little limbs shall ache no more In the arms of sleep
- 31: With the frying pan for his companion
- 32: When they keep plenty ov 'em as near as Lumpkinsville
- 33: That Heaven romps with us no more since those days went away
- 34: God bless the whole sooner tribe
- 35: God will cash our chips at dawn
- 36: And still I will follow the phantom
- 37: When we reach the Land of Forty
- 38: I hev hearn tell thet he is a mighty big feller
- 39: In God's long years reaps harvestings of blame
- 40: Mistah Cotton come toh me In de young spring time
- 41: Pa he Has got a breath that's orful raw
- 42: Pap's gittin' erlong fine with 'em
- 43: And then the little life is o'er
- 44: It gleams on the grayest slope
- 45: Hiding away in the deepest shadows
- 46: We're sailing for harbor lights of home
- 47: Generally concludes that the greatest number is No
- 48: Wintah's gwine toh git yuh Foh yub ketch yoh bref
- 49: All the glory belongs to the Meal Ticket Man
- 50: Joe made quite a race fer sartin'
- 51: Argued the republican candidate for office
- 52: All the boys an' gals come home an' brung theyr kids along
- 53: My Mommer says ef I ain't good
- 54: Mister Sorrow from that day Hangs around here so
- 55: Hab yoh fun Makin' grub foh us
- 56: There's the mistletoe up yonder
- 57: If Santa Claus forgets to come
- 58: Ah dreamed I wuz in hebben on Crissmuss eve
- 59: Whatever fortune crowns imperfect deed
- 60: When the statesmen cure your ills
- 61: What did Santa Claus bring you
- 62: You remember how we pledged us all the glories of renown
- 63: We have lost our foolish boasting
- 64: Always shouted for retrenchment
- 65: Answered the confident statesman
- 66: En dat New Yaar Resolution got a move on mighty strong
- 67: Ole Satan come en raised a row
- 68: Up yondah shine de big red sun
- 69: In the manner that Respectable Minorities behave
- 70: She waits for the call of her Valentine
- 71: And he's done malicious murder to the Statehood bill
- 72: But we hope he'll quit his meanness to the Statehood bill
- 73: He nebbeh said a wohd ehbout hell fiah
- 74: When Kansas gets her dander up and reaches for her gun
- 75: In the glories of the sunshine when we reach the bye and bye
- 76: They have left the reservation and are smashing at the Trust
- 77: And the joy that forever tarries
- 78: And if we but scanty trophies for our battles can display
- 79: Spring is the creative season of the world
- 80: As the blossoms greet the morning
- 81: Kissed the girls at apple cuttings and husking bees
- 82: Still on with a shout and song
- 83: The water melon crop is still ahead of us
- 84: A cloud of white in the orchard
- 85: Mister Teddy's on a huntin' trip and loaded up for bear
- 86: When Mister Roosevelt comes along we'll take a quiet rest
- 87: And life looks out through tender eyes
- 88: Will disappear forever more When Teddy squares the deal
- 89: It is sixteen years since the race for homes
- 90: The rabbits left a pile of eggs As Easter rabbits do
- 91: Anent the present divorce agitation
- 92: We travel the rim of the circle
- 93: Out with the May time blossoms
- 94: 'Twas for me that they finished their quest
- 95: Wid shiny watah melons Eh crowdin' in de rows
- 96: Enough that we knew the raptures as tired feet wandered far
- 97: Where the sweet light beckons on
- 98: Whayre the rain bows ring the medders with a rosy rim of joy
- 99: While the rain bows ring the medders with a rosy rim of joy
- 100: Here's the road that's never long
- 101: The dreams that we catch and cherish
- 102: And no sage e'er understood What was evil
- 103: Page 283 vitrol changed to vitriol