It Can Be Done Part 49

_Griffith Alexander,_

From "The Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger."

HOE YOUR ROW

We must not dream of harvests and neglect the toil that produces them.

De fiel's 'll soon be hummin'

Roun' de country high en low; De harves' is a-comin': Hoe yo' row!

Hoe yo' row!

No time now fer de sleeper; It's "Git up now, en go!"

It's de sower makes de reaper; Hoe yo' row!

Hoe yo' row!

It's sweet de birds is singin'

De songs you lovin' so; But de harves' bells is ringin'; Hoe yo' row!

Hoe yo' row!

_Frank L. Stanton._

From "The Atlanta Const.i.tution."

BORROWING TROUBLE

It is bad enough to cry over spilt milk. But many of us do worse; we cry over milk that we think is going to be spilt. In line 1 sic=such; 2, a'=all; 3, nae=no; 4, enow=enough; 5, hae=have; sturt=fret, trouble.

But human bodies are sic fools, For a' their colleges an' schools, That when nae real ills perplex them, They mak enow themsels to vex them; An' ay the less they hae to sturt them, In like proportion less will hurt them.

_Robert Burns_

UNDISMAYED

A convict explained to a visitor why he had been sent to the penitentiary. "They can't put you in here for that!" the visitor exclaimed. "They did," replied the convict. So smiling seems a futile thing. Apparently it cannot get us anywhere--but it does.

He came up smilin'--used to say He made his fortune that-a-way; He had hard luck a-plenty, too, But settled down an' fought her through; An' every time he got a jolt He jist took on a tighter holt, Slipped back some when he tried to climb But came up smilin' every time.

He came up smilin'--used to git His share o' knocks, but he had grit, An' if they hurt he didn't set Around th' grocery store an' fret.

He jist grabbed Fortune by th' hair An' hung on till he got his share.

He had th' grit in him to stay An' come up smilin' every day.

He jist gripped hard an' all alone Like a set bull-pup with a bone, An' if he got shook loose, why then He got up an' grabbed holt again.

He didn't have no time, he'd say, To bother about yesterday, An' when there was a prize to win He came up smilin' an' pitched in.

He came up smilin'--good fer him!

He had th' grit an' pluck an' vim, So he's on Easy Street, an' durned If I don't think his luck is earned!

No matter if he lost sometimes, He's got th' stuff in him that climbs, An' when his chance was mighty slim, He came up smilin'--good fer him!

_James W. Foley._

From "Tales of the Trail."

A HERO

If defeat strengthens and sweetens character, it is not defeat at all, but victory.

He sang of joy; whate'er he knew of sadness He kept for his own heart's peculiar share: So well he sang, the world imagined gladness To be sole tenant there.

For dreams were his, and in the dawn's fair s.h.i.+ning, His spirit soared beyond the mounting lark; But from his lips no accent of repining Fell when the days grew dark;

And though contending long dread Fate to master, He failed at last her enmity to cheat, He turned with such a smile to face disaster That he sublimed defeat.

_Florence Earle Coates._

From "Poems."

WILL

"I can resist anything but temptation," says a character in one of Oscar Wilde's plays. Too many of us have exactly this strength of will. We perhaps do not fall into gross crime, but because of our flabby resolution our lives become purposeless, negative, negligible. No one would miss us in particular if we were out of the way.