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From Rude Rural Rhymes by Bob Adams, New York: The Macmillan Company; 1925; pp. 131-132.


[131]

TRESPASS

This bard and his fair Hannah spouse
Are living in a rented house
And in the same will likely stick
Unless they drop the price of brick.
It takes a lot of Rural Rhymes
To build a house in these hard times.
The present price of lath and plaster
Would bring us debt and dire disaster.
But I picked out a likely spot
Then hocked my shirt and bought a lot.
I mowed the weeds and plowed around
To use the same for garden ground.
Alas, the neighbors had a path
Which they still used despite my wrath.
My ownership they never honored
But kept on crossing catercornered.
I posted then my border line
And stuck thereon a little sign:
“O brothers for the love of Mike,
Go around and use the pike.
O sisters, keep your dainty feet
From off my carrots, chard and beet.”
They failed to heed my gentle warning
[132] And every noon and night and morning,
Some cabbage plant in which I trusted
Was trodden down and crushed and busted,
Until at last I built a fence
To turn the devastators thence.
If now their march should fail to halt,
I’ll try a shot gun filled with salt.
Yet I myself am like my neighbors,
And at my play or at my labors,
My heavy feet are apt to pound
Too often on forbidden ground.
We’re all so stubborn, mean and dense
That God and man must set a fence
To keep us in the narrow way
Which we should travel day by day.
Yea, even then some sinful game
Oft tempts us on to climb the same.
O brothers, for the love of Pete,
Be careful where you throw your feet.






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