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RUBAIYAT OF DOC SIFERS
BY JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY




Other Books by
James Whitcomb Riley


    POEMS HERE AT HOME.
    NEGHBORLY POEMS.
    SKETCHES IN PROSE AND OCCASIONAL VERSES.
    AFTERWHILES.
    PIPES O' PAN (Prose and Verse).
    RHYMES OF CHILDHOOD.
    FLYING ISLANDS OF THE NIGHT.
    OLD-FASHIONED ROSES (English Edition).
    GREEN FIELDS AND RUNNING BROOKS.
    ARMAZINDY.
    A CHILD-WORLD.
    AN OLD SWEETHEART OF MINE.




[Illustration]



---------------------------
  RUBAIYAT OF DOC SIFERS

  BY JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY
---------------------------

    ILLUSTRATED
        BY
    C. M. RELYEA

[Illustration]

  PUBLISHED BY THE CENTURY CO.
  NEW YORK M DCCC XC VII




  Copyright, 1897,
  BY THE CENTURY CO.

  Copyright, 1897,
  BY JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY


THE DE VINNE PRESS.





TO

DR. FRANKLIN W. HAYS

    THE LOYAL CHUM OF MY LATEST YOUTH
    AND LIKE FRIEND AND COMRADE STILL
    WITH ALL GRATEFUL AFFECTION OF

THE AUTHOR.




    _We found him in that Far-away_
       _that yet to us seems near--_
    _We vagrants of but yesterday_
       _when idlest youth was here,--_
    _When lightest song and laziest mirth_
       _possessed us through and through,_
    _And all the dreamy summer-earth_
       _seemed drugged with morning dew:_

    _When our ambition scarce had shot_
       _a stalk or blade indeed:_
    _Yours,--choked as in the garden-spot_
       _you still deferred to "weed":_
    _Mine,--but a pipe half-cleared of pith--_
       _as now it flats and whines_
    _In sympathetic cadence with_
       _a hiccough in the lines._

    _Aye, even then--O timely hour!--_
       _the High Gods did confer_
    _In our behalf:--And, clothed in power,_
       _lo, came their Courier--_
    _Not winged with flame nor shod with wind,--_
       _but ambling down the pike_,
    _Horseback, with saddlebags behind,_
       _and guise all human-like._

    _And it was given us to see,_
       _beneath his rustic rind,_
    _A native force and mastery_
       _of such inspiring kind,_
    _That half unconsciously we made_
       _obeisance.--Smiling, thus_
    _His soul shone from his eyes and laid_
       _its glory over us._

       *       *       *       *       *

    _Though, faring still that Far-away_
       _that yet to us seems near,_
    _His form, through mists of yesterday,_
       _fades from the vision here,_
    _Forever as he rides, it is_
       _in retinue divine,--_
    _The hearts of all his time are his,_
       _with your hale heart and mine._


[Illustration]




RUBAIYAT OF DOC SIFERS
BY JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY




[Illustration]




RUBAIYAT
OF
DOC SIFERS




  I

    Ef you don't know DOC SIFERS I'll
       jes argy, here and now,
    You've bin a mighty little while
       about here, anyhow!
    'Cause Doc he's rid these roads and woods--
       er _swum_ 'em, now and then--
    And practised in this neighberhood
       sence hain't no tellin' when!


  II

    In radius o' fifteen mile'd,
       all p'ints o' compass round,
    No man er woman, chick er child,
       er team, on top o' ground,
    But knows _him_--yes, and got respects
       and likin' fer him, too,
    Fer all his so-to-speak dee-fects
       o' genius showin' through!


  III

    Some claims he's absent-minded; some
       has said they wuz afeard
    To take his powders when he come
       and dosed 'em out, and 'peared
    To have his mind on somepin' else--
       like County Ditch, er some
    New way o' tannin' mussrat-pelts,
       er makin' butter come.


[Illustration]


  IV

    He's cur'ous--they hain't no mistake
       about it!--but he's got
    Enough o' extry brains to make
       a _jury_--like as not.
    They's no _describin'_ Sifers,--fer,
       when all is said and done,
    He's