The Old Country Road

The Old Country Road
 
Where did it come from and where did it go?
     That was the question that puzzled us so,
As we waded the dust of the highway that flowed
     By the farm like a river - the old country road.
 
We stood with our hair sticking up through the crown
     Of our hat, as the people went up and went down,
And we wished in our hearts as eyes fairly glowed
     We could find where it came from - the old country road.
 
We remember the peddler who came with his pack,
     Adown the old highway and never went back;
And we wondered what things he had seen as he strode
     From some fabulous place up the old country road.
 
We remember the stage driver's look of delight,
     And the crack of his whip as he whirled into sight,
And we thought we could read in each glance he bestowed,
     A tale of strange life up the old country road.
 
The movers came by like a ship in full sail,
     With a rudder behind in the shape of a pail,
With a rollicking crew and a cow that was towed
     With a rope on her horns, down the old country road.
 
And the gypsies - how well we remember the week
     They camped by the old covered bridge on the creek;
How the neighbors quit work and the crops were unhoed,
     Till the wagons drove off down the old country road.
 
Oh, the top of the hill was the rim of the world,
     And the dust of the summer that over it curled
Was the curtain that hid from our sight the abode
     Of the fairies that lived up the old country road.
 
The old country road I can see it still flow
     Down the hill of my dreams, as it did long ago,
And I wish even now that I could lay off my load
     And rest by the side of the old country road.
 
by Author Unknown