In October 1910, L.M. Montgomery published the poem "Bob's Stories" in The Farm Journal, a journal devoted to the farm, orchard, garden, poultry and household economy. The journal's motto was "Practical not Fancy Farming."
Here is a digitized image of the poem scanned from microfilm available at Archive.org:
Here is the full text of the poem:
BOB’S STORIES
BY L. M. MONTGOMERY
The sky was a windy tent when he
His stories told,
Shot all through with mellow hues:
And vagrant winds went lowing free
Over fields all wet with nightly dews,
And the West was gold.
Tired from work and play were we
When the day was done;
Hanging around the old back door
To hear the wonderful yarns that he
On those dusky, breezy eves of yore
Unwearied spun.
Bob was never stuck, not he,
For a story to tell.
He made them all out of his own small head,
Fairies and dragons and witches; we
Were almost too scared to go to bed
When the darkness fell.
Enchanted castles and knights galore
And pirates bold,
Marvelous ventures on land and sea,—
The wilder it all might be the more
We liked it and listened breathlessly,
Till the tale was told.
Books were nothing to him, we thought,
Not half such fun
As to sit around with wide-opened eyes,
Our little every-day world forgot,
And listen with awed, delicious surprise
To the yarns he spun.
Bob since then to other ears
Has stories told;
Over the world has flown his fame.
Men and women with laughter and tears
Read the books that bear his name
In letters of gold.
But I’m ready to wager that never he
Sweeter praise has won
Than we gave unstintedly years ago,
When, a barefooted, dusty fraternity,
We listened, wide-eyed, in the sunset glow
To the yarns he spun
Reference:
Montgomery, L.M. (1910, October). Bob's Stories. The Farm Journal. 34(10): 466. Retrieved from: https://archive.org/details/sim_farm-journal_1910-10_34_10/page/466/mode/2up
Created October 13, 2022.
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