1

Since that girl went off and left me,
I can't plan just what to do.
Saw Tom Frothingham this mornin',
He says Johnson's gone off, too.
My old mother used to tell me,
When I lagged at any task,
"Keep on working, do no shirking,
You will bring the thing to pass."
That advice has been my motto:
Everything that I've begun,
I've stayed with it, sick or weary,
Till the job was squarely done.
But this case is kind o' different;
Though I ain't the kind that grieves,
How you goin' to work that motto
When the job gets up and leaves?


2

S'pose, in thinkin' and decidin',
I refuse to do my part;--
Just sit down and let my mem'ry
Finish breaking up my heart--
S'pose I give up like a coward,
Let the world say I ain't game,
'Cause by leavin' I should forfeit
My poor eighty-acre claim.