The North Carolina Standard

POETRY.

FROM THE COLUMBUS (OHIO) STATESMAN.

THE COUNTRY GIRLS.

I love the country spinster,
Who turns the buzzing wheel;
Who plies, with busy hand, the card,
With merry hum, the reel.

I love the country seamstress,
Who makes the household gear,
And who, with industry and art,
Prepares the homespun wear.

I love the country milkmaid,
Whose daily task supplies
A wholesome food and beverage,
For country families.

Her neat and ample dairy,
Her industry attests,
And when night finds her weary
In innocence she rests.

I love the country housewife,
Her neat swept rural dome,
Where love, & truth, & kindness dwell-
The ploughman's happy home.

These wear the healthful blushes,
They walk with form erect,
They wear their own wrought homespun,
And gewgaw show reject.

No "Grecian bend" affected.
No ambling, mincing pace,
No scornful tossing of the head,
No modish, wry, grimace.

No sallow pale complexion,
No court spots speck the lips,
No camel hump deforms the back,
No bishops eke the hips.

No "Come and see my shoulders!"
No studied vicious taste,
No whalebone, framed to choke the breath
No corsets cut the waist.

No dark midnight carousals
Corrupt their purity,
No treacherous espousals
Convict of coquetry.

Faithful in all relations,
As mothers, daughters, wives-
As sisters kind, as lovers true,
And virtuous their lives.