Oh, Adam was a gardener, and God who made him sees
That half a proper gardener's work is done upon his knees,
So when your work is finished, you can wash your hands and pray
For the Glory of the Garden, that it may not pass away!
And the Glory of the Garden it shall never pass away!

~ Rudyard Kipling (1865 - 1936) The Glory of the Garden.

"I keep six honest serving-men
   (They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
   And How and Where and Who."

~ Rudyard Kipling (1865 - 1936)

(Photo:  11B. Previous location of The Neat Little Bookshop on Cayuga Street.)

There's a whisper down the field where the year has shot her yield,
   And the ricks stand grey to the sun,
Singing:~ 'Over then, come over, for the bee has quit the clover,
   And your English summer's done.'
   You have heard the beat of the off-shore wind,
   And the thresh of the deep-sea rain;
   You have heard the song~how long?  how long?
   Pull out on the trail again!
Ha' done with the Tents of Shem, dear lass,
We've seen the seasons through,
And it's time to turn on the old trail, our own trail, the out trail,
Pull out, pull out, on the Long Trail~the trail that is always new!

~Rudyard Kipling (1865 - 1936) The Long Trail

"Teach us delight in simple things,
And mirth that has no bitter springs;
Forgiveness free of evil done,
And love to all men 'neath the sun!" ~ Rudyard Kipling (1865 - 1936)

You Know You're in Cayuga When. . .

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet wrote to her brother prior to secretly marrying Robert Browning, begging for understanding and asking her brother to explain to their father her love for the man she was about to marry.*

"...Mr. Browning has been attached to me for nearly two years ~ at first and for long I could not believe that he (who is what you know a little) could care for such as I, except in an illusion and a dream...With a protest, he submitted, and months passed on so.  Still he came continually & wrote & made me feel with every breath I drew in his presence, that he loved me with no ordinary affection...

"I never believed that a man whom I could love (I hated having a need to look up high in order to love)...could be satisfied with loving me.  And yet he did~does.  Then we have one mind on all subjects~ & the solemner they are, the nearer we seem to approach.  If poets, we are together, still more we are Christians.  For these nearly two years we have known each other's opinions & thoughts & feelings, weakness & strength, as few persons in the position have had equal opportunities of doing."

*Elizabeth's father never spoke to her again.

~ The 50 GREATEST LOVE LETTERS of All Time, edited by D. H. Lowenherz, Crown Publishers, 2002.