THE CORN LADY 



"For, after all," says Farmer John, 

 "The best of a journey is getting home; 

 I've seen great sights but I would not give 

 This spot and the peaceful life I live 



For all their Paris and Rome; 

 These hills for the city's stifled air 

 And big hotels and bustle and glare; 

 Lands all houses, and roads all stones 

 That deafen your ears and batter your bones ! 



Would you, old Bay? 



Would you, old Gray? 

 That's what one gets by going away." 



"There Money is king," says Farmer John, 

 "And Fashion is queen, and it's very queer 

 To see how sometimes when the man 

 Is raking and scraping all he can, 



The wife spends, every year, 

 Enough you would think for a score of wives 

 To keep them in luxury all their lives ! 

 The town is a perfect Babylon 

 To a quiet chap," said Farmer John. 



"You see, old Bay, 



You see, old Gray, 

 I'm wiser than when I went away." 



"I've found this out," said Farmer John, 

 "That happiness is not bought and sold, 

 And clutched in a life of waste and hurry, 

 In nights of pleasure and days of worry, 



And wealth isn't all in gold, 

 Mortgages, stocks and ten per cent, 

 But in simple ways and sweet content, 



