Nature Sonnet (By the Village Poet)

Today I asked pa if he didn’t think

     I ought to have more wages than I got,

     That farmers round were paying quite a lot

More than they did, and I was short of chink,

And that my clothes were getting on the blink.

Pa said he’d think it over, and next day

He pulled a lengthy face his usual way,

And says, “I like your bus’ness sense by jink!”

“I’ll raise you fifty cents per week,” says he

     And then my chest began to swell with pride

And I was just as happy as could be

     And had the fifty spent, and lots beside.

Then pa says, sheepish, soon as he could speak:

“But board has gone up fifty cents a week.”

Jan. 25, 1917