Wit and Humor of America, The Vol 07

<h2>UTAH</h2> <h3>BY EUGENE FIELD</h3> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Bowed was the old man's snow-white head,<br/></span> <span class="i2">A troubled look was on his face,<br/></span> <span class="i0">"Why come you, sir," I gently said,<br/></span> <span class="i2">"Unto this solemn burial place?"<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">"I come to weep a while for one<br/></span> <span class="i2">Whom in her life I held most dear,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Alas, her sands were quickly run,<br/></span> <span class="i2">And now she lies a sleeping here."<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">"Oh, tell me of your precious wife,<br/></span> <span class="i2">For she was very dear, I know,<br/></span> <span class="i0">It must have been a blissful life<br/></span> <span class="i2">You led with her you treasure so?"<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">"My wife is mouldering in the ground,<br/></span> <span class="i2">In yonder house she's spinning now,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And lo! this moment may be found<br/></span> <span class="i2">A driving home the family cow;<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">"And see, she's standing at the stile,<br/></span> <span class="i2">And leans from out the window wide,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And loiters on the sward a while,<br/></span> <span class="i2">Her forty babies by her side."</span><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_1306" id="Page_1306"></SPAN></span><br/></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">"Old man, you must be mad!" I cried,<br/></span> <span class="i2">"Or else you do but jest with me;<br/></span> <span class="i0">How is it that your wife has died<br/></span> <span class="i2">And yet can here and living be?<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">"How is it while she drives the cow<br/></span> <span class="i2">She's hanging out her window wide,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And loiters, as you said just now,<br/></span> <span class="i2">With forty babies by her side?"<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">The old man raised his snowy head,<br/></span> <span class="i2">"I have a sainted wife in Heaven;<br/></span> <span class="i0">I am a Mormon, sir," he said,<br/></span> <span class="i2">"My sainted wife on earth are seven."<br/></span> <span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_1307" id="Page_1307"></SPAN></span></div> </div> <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />