THE HAPPY LIFE

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 29 April 1922, Page 3

THE HAPPY LIFE

In these times of chronic war prices ior merchandise, pre-war prices for dairy produce, and super-war taxation, the enclosed gem of softest pathos, extracted from the Dairy Farmer, will strike a responsive chord in the heart of every cow cocky: —

The Farming Life. Under its spreading bankruptcy The farmer 7s homestead stands, Its lord.a mournful man is he

As he ploughs his mortgaged lands, For the laws that seize his cream and cheese Are strong as iron bands. *

His face is thin, and long, and grim, And burnt like Pharoah's bricks; His brow is wet- with honest sweat, His shins are blue with kicks; His toes are bent and crumpled up From kicking at the pricks.

Week in, week out, from morn till night, He toils to keep food cheap; He ploughs and harrows ere he plants For someone else to reap; And the only time he owns his soul Is when he is asleep.

His children stay away from school To hoe his noxious weeds, Although they know they cannot learn Sufficient for their needs; They strive to slay the Bathurst burr Before the rascal seeds.

He goes on Sunday to the yard With his little girls and "boys, And they rejoice to hear his voice And the language he employs When a cranky heifer plants a kick On a spot where it annoys.

Toiling and moiling and labouring, Onward through life he goes; He hopes to work for all he's worth Till his creditors foreclose, And then in six feet odd of earth Enjoy a long repose.