The miser thinks he’s living when he’s hoarding up his gold;

It has no time to stop and petThe sulker in a peevish fret,Who wails he’ll neither work nor playBecause things haven’t gone his way.The world keeps plodding right alongAnd gives its favors right or wrongTo all who have the grit to workRegardless of the fool or shirk.The world says this to every man:‘Go out and…

And when I ‘m glad, I ‘m a happy ladTo think none could be gladder.

If I’d a wife to cheer my life,But not one child to love me,No rosy-lipped young laughing miss,No bright-eyed, roguish laddie,I ‘d search the town, both up and down,Till one should call me daddie.I would not have a roof that ne’erKnew sound of childish chatter,Nor keep a floor, unlettered o’erBy little feet that patter.Nor would…

He owns an automobile now, a saddle horse and keeps a cow,And smokes cigars at fifty cents a throw.He is a lucky chap, indeed! He got up something that we need,The way he’s making money is a shame;It’s not five years ago, I swear, he only had one suit to wearAnd didn’t have a dollar…

‘Don’t talk to me of the bourjoissee, don’t open your mouth to speakOf your socialists or your anarchists, don’t mention the bolsheveek,For I’ve had enough of this foreign stuff, I’m sick as a man can beOf the speech of hate, and I’m tellin’ you straight that this is the landfor me!‘If you want to brag,…

Started a bank-account time an’ again,Got a hundred or so for a nest egg, an’ thenSome fellow that needed it more than he did,Who was down on his luck, with a sick wife or kid,Came along an’ he wasted no time till he wentAn’ drew out the coin that for saving was meant.They say he…

And the grass beneath our feet,O, so green and O, so sweet!There we wandered boy and girl,Sun-kissed was each golden curl;Hand in hand we used to stray,Hide-and-seek we used to play;Just a pair of kids were we,Laughing, loving, trouble free.Up and down the lanes of loveWith the same blue skies above,Next we wandered, bride and…

I shall want to sit, I reckon, sort of dreamin’ in the sun,An’ recall the roads I’ve traveled an’ the many things I’ve done,An’ I hope there’ll be no picture that I’ll hate to look uponWhen the time to paint it better or to wipe it out is gone.I hope there’ll be no vision of…

An’ a shock of hair that brush an’ comb can’t ever straighten out,An’ hands that somehow never seem to know what they’re about;The one with freckled features and a nose that looks as thoughIt was fashioned by the youngsters from a chunk of mother’s dough.You know the man I’m thinking of, the homely one an’…

By noon had read a LauraLibbey paper novel through.By four o’clock anotherTale of love and passion triteShe had devoured, and on the thirdWas well along by night.But in the kitchen, Lillian’sMother toiled with dish and spoon,Endeavoring to work, and getA lunch for dad at noon.She washed the dishes, scrubbed the floorsAnd made each bed by…

I ‘spose that wiseacre whose talk is so glibIs my Pa.I’ve not been here long—my days are but three,But there’s something that even a baby can see,An’ the man who takes all of the credit for meIs my Pa.I ‘spose that the man with the hat that won’t fitIs my Pa.I ‘spose that the fellow…

We’d watch her stir the eggs an’ flour an’ powdered sugar, too,An’ pour it in the crinkled tin, an’ then when it was throughShe’d spread the icing over it, an’ we knew very soonThat one would get the plate to lick, an’ one would get the spoon.It seemed no matter where we were those mornings…