CHAPTER XXIV. The Service of Music to the Countryside

THE SERVICE OF MUSIC TO THE COUNTRYSIDE

HARMONIES

The scrubbing's done; my kitchen stands arrayed In shining tins, and order reigns supreme. And on the table, like a fairy dream, A row of pies and cakes, all freshly made And full of spicy odors, stands displayed; While from the oven, like a rising stream Of incense, comes a fragrance, warm, supreme ... The bread, its final browning still delayed. Now while I sit beside the oven door I take up my guitar upon my knee, And singing the old songs I knew of yore, My happy youth comes back again to me-- Music and incense rising on the air! Courage is mine, and all the world is fair!

--Helen Coale Crew.