Her Last Letter
By Bret Harte (Francis)
June 4th! Do you know what that date means?
June 4th! By this air and these pines!
Well, only you know how I hate scenes,
These might be my very last lines!
For perhaps, sir, youll kindly remember
If some other things youve forgot
That you last wrote the 4th of december,
Just six months ago! from this spot;
From this spot, that you said was the fairest
For once being held in my thought.
Now, really I call that the barest
Of well, I wont say what I ought!
For here I am back from my riches,
My triumphs, my tours, and all that;
And youre not to be found in the ditches
Or temples of Poverty Flat!
From Paris we went for the season
To London, when Pa wired, Stop.
Mama says his health was the reason.
(Ive heard that some things took a drop.)
But she said if my patience Id summon
I could go back with him to the Flat
Perhaps I was thinking of some one
Who of me well was not thinking that!
Of course you will say that I never
Replied to the letter you wrote.
That is just like a man! But, however,
I read it or how could I quote?
And as to the stories youve heard (No,
Dont tell me you havent I know!),
Youll not believe one blessed word, Joe;
But just whence they came, let them go!
And they came from Sade Lotski of Yolo,
Whose father sold clothes on the Bar
You called him Job-lotski, you know, Joe,
And the boys said her value was par.
Well, we met her in Paris just flaring
With diamonds, and lost in a hat
And she asked me how Joseph was faring
In his love-suit on Poverty Flat!
She thought it would shame me! I met her
With a look, Joe, that made her eyes drop;
And I said that your love-suit fared better
Than any suit out of their shop!
And I didnt blush then as Im doing
To find myself here, all alone,
And left, Joe, to do all the sueing
To a lover thats certainly flown.
In this brand-new hotel, called The Lily
(I wonder who gave it that name?)
I really am feeling quite silly,
To think I was once called the same;
And I stare from its windows, and fancy
Im labeled to each passer-by.
Ah! gone is the old necromancy,
For nothing seems right to my eye.
On that hill there are stores that I knew not;
Theres a street where I once lost my way;
And the copse where you once tied my shoe-knot
Is shamelessly open as day!
And that bank by the spring I once drank there,
And you called the place Eden, you know;
Now Im banished like Eve though the bank there
Is belonging to Adams and Co.
Theres the rustle of silk on the sidewalk;
Just now there passed by a tall hat;
But theres gloom in this boom and this wild talk
Of the future of Poverty Flat.
Theres a decorous chill in the air, Joe,
Where once we were simple and free;
And I hear theyve been making a mayor, Joe,
Of the man who shot Sandy McGee.
But theres still the lap, lap of the river;
Theres the song of the pines, deep and low.
(How my longing for them made me quiver
In the park that they call Fontainebleau!)
Theres the snow-peak that looked on our dances,
And blushed when the morning said, Go!
Theres a lot that remains which one fancies
But somehow theres never a Joe!
Perhaps, on the whole, it is better,
For you might have been changed like the rest;
Though its strange that Im trusting this letter
To papa, just to have it addressed.
He thinks he may find you, and really
Seems kinder now Im all alone.
You might have been here, Joe, if merely
To look what Im willing to own.
Well, well! thats all past; so good-night, Joe;
Good-night to the river and Flat;
Good-night to whats wrong and whats right, Joe;
Good-night to the past, and all that
To Harrisons barn, and its dancers;
To the moon, and the white peak of snow;
And good-night to the canyon that answers
My Joe! with its echo of No!
P.S.
Ive just got your note. You deceiver!
How dared you how could you? Oh, Joe!
To think Ive been kept a believer
In things that were six months ago!
And its youve built this house, and the bank, too,
And the mills, and the stores, and all that!
And for everything changed I must thank you,
Who have struck it on Poverty Flat!
How dared you get rich you great stupid!
Like papa, and some men that I know,
Instead of just trusting to Cupid
And to me for your money? Ah, Joe!
Just to think you sent never a word, dear,
Till you wrote to papa for consent!
Now I know why they had me transferred here,
And the health of papa what that meant!
Now I know why they call this The Lily;
Why the man who shot Sandy McGee
You made mayor! Twas because oh, you silly!
He once went down the middle with me!
Ive been fooled to the top of my bent here,
So come, and ask pardon you know
That youve still got to get my consent, dear!
And just think what that echo said Joe!