Produced by David Widger from page images generously provided by Google Books
(Reprinted from the Atlantic Monthly of September, 1858)
With numerous original illustrations by Thomas McIlvaine
|Have you heard of the wonderful one-hoss-shay,
I'll tell you what happened without delay.=
That the Deacon finished the one-hoss-shay.
Now in building of chaises, I tell you what,
There is always _somewhere_ a weakest spot,--
In hub, tire, felloe, in spring or thill,
In panel, or crossbar, or floor, or sill,
In screw, bolt, thoroughbrace,--lurking still
A chaise _breaks down_, but doesn't _wear out_.=
With an “I dew vum,” or an “I tell _yeou_,”
He would build one shay to beat the taown
'n' the keounty 'n' all the keuntry raoun';
It should be so built that it _couldn'_ break daown:
--“Fur,” said the Deacon, “'t's mighty plain
Thut the weakes' place mus' stan' the strain;
'n' the way t' fix it, uz I maintain, is only jest
To make that place uz strong uz the rest.”
So the Deacon inquired of the village folk
That couldn't be split nor bent nor broke,--
He sent for lancewood to make the thills;
The crossbars were ash, from the straightest trees;
The panels of white-wood, that cuts like cheese,
But lasts like iron for things like these;
The hubs of logs from the “Settler's ellum,”
Last of its timber,--they couldn't sell 'em,--
(“SO THE DEACON INQUIRED OF THE VILLAGE FOLK.”)
And the wedges flew from between their lips,
Their blunt ends frizzled like celery-tips;
Thoroughbrace bison-skin, thick and wide;
“There!” said the Deacon, “naow she'll dew!”=
Children and grandchildren--where were they?
But there stood the stout old one-hoss-shay
The Deacon's Masterpiece strong and sound.
In fact, there's nothing that keeps its youth,
Take it.--You're welcome.--No extra charge.)=
|First of November--the Earthquake-day.--
There are traces of age in the one-hoss-shay,
That there wasn't a chance for one to start.
For the wheels were just as strong as the thills--
And the floor was just as strong as the sills,
And the panels just as strong as the floor,
And the whippletree neither less nor more.
And the back-crossbar as strong as the fore,
And yet, _as a whole_, it is past a doubt
“Huddup!” said the parson.--Off went they.=
The parson was working his Sunday's text,--