Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 January 1902 — HIS LAST REQUEST. [ARTICLE]

HIS LAST REQUEST.

A good, gray-haired preacher lay dying on his bed; The congregation's pillars were weeping round his head; The Dorcas Band of Ladies was mourning in the hall; The Misses’ Sewing Circle was sighing within call; And every lady carried, in package large but neat, A pair of Christmas slippers meant for the parson's feet. The good, gray-haired preacher looked up with fitting smile, And Baid: “Good-by, I leave you, to sojourn for awhile— To sojourn with the angels, whose shining forms I 6ee, Until my congregation may sojourn there with me." The Dorcas Band of Ladies—the Sewing Circle, too. Brought out their load of slippers and held them to his view. The good, gray-haired preacher said: “I regret, indeed, And always have regretted, I’m not a centipede. I thank you for the slippers—but, still, the thought is fair. In pictures of the angels—we, see no slippers there. Farewell, kind Band of Dorcas, and Sewing Circle dear. And when you come to join me leave all the slippers here!”

Baltimore American.