Josh Billings — Dead in California, October 15, 1885
Jolly-hearted old Josh Billings,
With his wisdom and his wit,
And his gravity of presence,
And the drollery of it!
Has he left us, and forever?
When so many merry years
He has only left us laughing—
And he leaves us now in tears?
Has he turned from his “Deer Publik,”
With his slyly twinkling eyes
Now grown dim and heavy-lidded
In despite of sunny skies?—
Yet with rugged brow uplifted,
And the long hair tossed away,
Like an old heroic lion,
With a mane of iron-gray.
Though we lose him, still we find him
In the mirth of every lip,
And we fare through all his pages
In his glad companionship:
His voice is wed with Nature’s,
Laughing in each woody nook
With the chirrup of the robin
And the chuckle of the brook.
But the children—O the children!—
They who leaped to his caress,
And felt his arms about them,
And his love and tenderness,—
Where—where will they find comfort
As their tears fall like the rain,
And they swarm his face with kisses
That he answers not again?