Tales of the Chesapeake

Tales of the Chesapeake

George Alfred Townsend

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Tales of the Chesapeake by George Alfred Townsend

Chapter 1 No.1

Nick Hammer sat in Funkstown

Before his tavern door-

The same old blue-stone tavern

The wagoners knew of yore,

When the Conestoga schooners

Came staggering under their load,

And the lines of slow pack-horses

Stamped over the National Road.

Nick Hammer and son together,

Both blowing pipe-smoke there,

Like a pair of stolid limekilns,

In the blue South Mountain air;

And the mills of the Antietam,

Grinding the Dunker's wheat

So oldly and so slowly,

Groaned up the deserted street.

"What think'st thou, Nick, my father?"

Said Nick, the old man's twin.

"This whole year thou art silent.

Let a little speech begin.

Thou think'st the bar draws little;

That the stables are empty yet,

And the growing pride of Hagerstown,

Thou can'st not that forget."

"Thou liest, Nick, my little boy;

For Hager's bells I hear

Like the bells of olden travel,

Forgot upon mine ear.

In a wonderful thing once asked him

Thy dear old daddy is sunk-

I have sot here a year and wondered

Who the devil was Mr. Funk!"

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