<h2 id="THE_HAPPY_FARMER"><i>THE HAPPY FARMER.</i></h2>
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">The farmer is a happy man,<br/></span>
<span class="i2">His life is free from care,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">With naught to make his spirit sad<br/></span>
<span class="i2">Or make him want to swear;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">All day among the cockle burrs<br/></span>
<span class="i2">He gaily grubs and hoes,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And money never troubles him,<br/></span>
<span class="i2">Unless 'tis what he owes.<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">How sweet at early dawn of day<br/></span>
<span class="i2">To rise before the sun,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And hustle briskly round the barn<br/></span>
<span class="i2">Till all the chores are done;<span class="pagenum">[117]</span><br/></span>
<span class="i0">To feed the cows, and milk them, too,<br/></span>
<span class="i2">In brightly shining pails,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">The while they tread upon your corns<br/></span>
<span class="i2">And thump you with their tails.<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">How sweet to hie into the field,<br/></span>
<span class="i2">From breakfast smoking hot,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And chase a plough all day around<br/></span>
<span class="i2">A forty acre lot,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And, when it strikes against a stone,<br/></span>
<span class="i2">Drawn by the horses stout,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">To have the handles prance around<br/></span>
<span class="i2">And punch your daylights out.<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">How sweet at noon to lie at ease<br/></span>
<span class="i2">Beneath some spreading tree,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And hold a secret session<br/></span>
<span class="i2">With an ardent bumble bee,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And when your rheumatism makes<br/></span>
<span class="i2">Your legs refuse to go,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">How sweet to lie upon your back<br/></span>
<span class="i2">And watch your mortgage grow.<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">And when the busy cares of day<br/></span>
<span class="i2">Have faded with the light,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">How sweet to lie in peaceful sleep<br/></span>
<span class="i2">Throughout the dewy night,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And to hear the partner of your joys,<br/></span>
<span class="i2">At the first faint tinge of dawn,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Shout, "Come, old granger, hump yourself<br/></span>
<span class="i2">The cows are in the corn."<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Mortimer C. Brown.</span><br/></span></div>
</div>
<hr class="chap" />
<p><span class="pagenum">[118]</span></p>
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