The Ox-Team | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jan 27, 1909

The Ox-Team.

From "Farm Journal."

I LIKE the ox-team so serene and slow, Instead of garage, chauffeur, and all that, Let's talk of good old Saxon yoke and bow, And trust to Star and Buck, so sleek and fat. Instead of flying through the outraged air, With hoot and stench and death's-head at the fore, I'll sit upon the tongue without a care, And hear the bobolink his song outpour. Whoa, Buck! gee, Star!

I'll watch the shadbush shed its living snow — If it is June — and sniff the fir and pine Instead of gasoline; and, as I go, The joy of life — the open way is mine. And if a neighbor's children or his dog Get in the way, it gives my nerves no jar; For murder and heart-failure shun the jog Of honest Buck and calm, sleek-sided Star. Gee, Buck! back, Star!

The touring car is Satan's latest snare, To tempt the world to deviltry and crime. The ox-team may be slow, but gets you there Decent and whole, if not ahead of time. Give me the goad and take your gasoline; The cricket's chirp, and keep your fiendish horn; I'll choose the wood road, where God's steps have been, And die as naturally as I was born. Whoa, Buck! back, Star!