FAMILY HISTORY: POETRY Collection written by Elsie Strawn ARMSTRONG
  
  File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Les Howard Strawn
  
  Copyright 2006.  All rights reserved.
  http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
  http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/somerset/
  ________________________________________________
  
      CHAPTER SEVENTEENTH
  
  And when the war was over
      And all of us got home,
  From different points collected,
      And all my sons did come
  
  When our business did turn out so
      We all at home could get,
  Then we were glad and thankful,
      And a very happy set.
  
  And then we all most cheerfully
      Did undertake our labors,
  But still the Pottawatamies
      Were among our nearest neighbors.
  
  And when our house was finished,
      That fall when we got home,
  Major Campbell and his wife
      And another lady come.
  
  He walked about and looked,
      Went from one room to another
  And said it was fell finished,
      "Twas large, and nice and clever."
  
  And said, "Well, boys, you have got now
      The best house in the County,
  If you go on as you've begun
      You are sure to have the bounty."
  
  That house is thirty-six feet long,
      It is twenty feet wide,
  Two seven-foot sheds preserve the walls,
      A shed on either side.
  
  It has had three new roofs,
      And has had two new floors,
  A chimney at each end it has,
      And it has three out doors.
  
  It was built in thirty-one,
      Stands there, looks up, so bold,
  In tolerable keeping,
      And a family still doth hold.
  
  In eighteen months we moved six times,
      No wonder we were tired.
  To have a chance to be at home
      We were very much admired.
  
  We had to move about so long
      It made our love for home more strong.
  
  The for us to be at home
      It seemed so nice and good,
  We had some floor at either door
      To keep us from the mud.