-Elizabeth Brewster
Anna, being the eldest of nine children,
Had always much to do about the house,
But, being stronger than most girls, was ready
To help her father plough or cut the firewood.
Her body was clumsy, but her bony hands
Were light and kind with babies or with horses.
She married, when she was no longer young,
A widower with five son. She thought him kind,
Though sometimes wishing, when he snored beside her
For the swaggering lumberjack whose dancing eyes
Had awed her tonguetied girlhood. When she woke
And lit the lamp for breakfast, all her mind
Turned to her day's work, to the milking and baking,
Washing and ironing. She had little time
For rest, except nights when she mended
And thought with half her mind; or cool June evenings
When walking through the hayfields in the dusk
She smelled the summer round her; or the Sundays
She went to meeting in her one good dress
And, kneeling with the parson's voice abover her
Like a fly buzzing somewhere in a corner,
Thanked God she had been luckier than most.