Hill Road or the Valley - A poem by J. P. Dunn

Hill Road or Valley.

I have two neighbors, they are friends,
They attend different churches,
Each one believe that his church teaches
The direct road to travel.
One is an old time Democrat,
The other a stand-pat Republican.
I concede them this right
As a One Hundred Per Cent American.

One day they met in a friendly chat,
Their subject was religion.
Each one agreed that Adam choked
When he tried to swallow an apple.
They marched on down the line
To the time of the Creation,
But could not agree on the narrow way
That leads from earth to heaven.

They called upon an old pioneer,
A gentleman and a scholar,
Who's hair once fair as a summer's day,
But now like the snow's of Plymouth.
He listened quite attentively
To each word they uttered,
He could not decide which one was right,
But for an illustration offered:

For forty years we have hauled our wheat
To yonder mill down on the river,
My son hauls over the hill road
While I drive down the valley,
Yet in all this great lapse of time.
Of fair and inclement weather,
The miller has never inquired which we came
The Hill Road or the Valley.

^__J. P. Dunn.