Mother's gone a-visitin' to spend a month er two,
An' oh, the house is lonesome ez a nest whose birds has
flew
To other trees to build agin; the rooms seem jest so bare
That the echoes run like sperrits from the kitchen to
the stair.
The shetters flap more lazy-like 'n what they ust to do,
Sence mother's gone a-visitin' to spend a month er two.

We've killed the fattest chicken an' we've cooked her
to a turn;
We've made the richest gravy, but I jist don't give a
durn,
Fur nothin' 'at I drink er eat, er nothin 'at I see.
The food ain't got the pleasant taste it ust to have to me.
They's somep'n' stickin' in my throat ez tight ez hard-
ened glue,
Sence mother's gone a-visitin' to spend a month er two.

The holly-hocks air jest ez pink, they're double ones at
that,
An' I wuz prouder of 'em than a baby of a cat.
But now I don't go near 'em, tho' they nod an' blush
at me,
Fur they's somep'n' seems to gall me in their keerless
sort o' glee
An' all their fren'ly noddin' an' their blushin' seems
to say:
"You're purty lonesome, John, old boy, sence mother's
gone away.

The neighbors ain't so fren'ly ez it seems they'd ort
to be;
They seem to be a-lookin' kinder sideways like at me,
A-kinder feared they'd tech me off ez ef I wuz a match,
An' all because 'at mother's gone an' I'm a-keepin'
batch!
I'm shore I don't do nothin' worse 'n what I ust to do
Fore mother went a visitin' to spend a month er two.

The sparrers ac's more tearsome like an' won't hop
quite so near,
The cricket's chirp is sadder an' the sky ain't ha'f so
clear;
When ev'nin' comes, I set an' smoke tell my eyes begin
to swim,
An' things, aroun' commence to look all blurred, an
faint an' dim.
Well, I guess I'll have to own up 'at I'm feelin' purty
blue,
Sence mother's gone a-visitin' to spend a month er two.

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