Ida Frickey

Nothing in life is alien to you:         I was a penniless girl from Summum         Who stepped from the morning train in Spoon River.         All the houses stood before me with closed doors         And drawn shades - l was barred out;         I had no place or part in any of them.         And I walked past the old McNeely mansion,         A castle of stone 'mid walks and gardens         With workmen about the place on guard         And the County and State upholding it         For its lordly owner, full of pride.         I was so hungry I had a vision:         I saw a giant pair of scissors         Dip from the sky, like the beam of a dredge,         And cut the house in two like a curtain.         But at the "Commercial" I saw a man         Who winked at me as I asked for work -         It was Wash McNeely's son.         He proved the link in the chain of title         To half my ownership of the mansion,         Through a breach of promise suit - the scissors.         So, you see, the house, from the day I was born,         Was only waiting for me.