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James Whitcomb Riley - My Dancin`-Days Is Over
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What is it in old fiddle-chunes `at makes me ketch my breath
And ripples up my backbone tel I`m tickled most to death?--
  Kindo` like that sweet-sick feelin`, in the long sweep of a swing,
  The first you ever swung in, with yer first sweet-heart, i jing!--
  Yer first picnic--yer first ice-cream--yer first o` _ever`thing_
    `At happened `fore yer dancin`-days wuz over!

I never understood it--and I s`pose I never can,--
But right in town here, yisterd`y, I heerd a pore blindman
  A-fiddlin` old "Gray Eagle"--_And_-sir! I jes stopped my load
  O` hay and listened at him--yes, and watched the way he "bow`d,"--
  And back I went, plum forty year`, with boys and girls I knowed
    And loved, long `fore my dancin`-days wuz over!--

At high noon in yer city,--with yer blame Magnetic-Cars
A-hummin` and a-screetchin` past--and bands and G.A.R.`s
  A-marchin`--and fire-ingines.--_All_ the noise, the whole street through,
  Wuz lost on me!--I only heerd a whipperwill er two,
  It `peared-like, kindo` callin` `crost the darkness and the dew,
    Them nights afore my dancin`-days wuz over.

T`uz Chused`y-night at Wetherell`s, er We`nsd`y-night at Strawn`s,
Er Fourth-o`-July-night at uther Tomps`s house er John`s!--
  With old Lew Church from Sugar Crick, with that old fiddle he
  Had sawed clean through the Army, from Atlanty to the sea--
  And yit he`d fetched, her home ag`in, so`s he could play fer me
    One`t more afore my dancin`-days wuz over!

The woods `at`s all ben cut away wuz growin` same as then;
The youngsters all wuz boys ag`in `at`s now all oldish men;
  And all the girls `at _then_ wuz girls--I saw `em, one and all,
  As _plain_ as then--the middle-sized, the short-and-fat, and tall--
  And, `peared-like, I danced "Tucker" fer `em up and down the wall
    Jes like afore my dancin` days wuz over!

       *       *       *       *       *

Yer _po_-leece they can holler "Say! _you_, Uncle! drive ahead!--
You can`t use _all_ the right-o`-way!"--fer that wuz what they said!--
  But, jes the same,--in spite of all `at you call "interprise
  And prog-gress of _you_-folks Today," we`re all of _fambly-ties_--
  We`re all got feelin`s fittin` fer the _tears_ `at`s in our eyes
    Er the _smiles_ afore our dancin`-days is over.
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