Page:Backblock Ballads and Later Verses (C.J. Dennis, 1918).djvu/31



"Sowin' things an' growin' things, an' watchin' of 'em grow; That's the game," my father said, an' father ought to know. "Settin' things an' gettin' things to grow for folks to eat: That's the life," my father said, "that's very hard to beat." For my father was a farmer, as his father was before, Just sowin' things an' growin' things in far-off days of yore, In the far-off land of England, till my father found his feet In the new land, in the true land, where he took to growin' wheat. ''Wheat, Wheat, Wheat! Oh, the sound of it is sweet!'' I've been praisin' it an' raisin' it in rain an' wind an' heat Since the time I learned to toddle, till it's beatin' in my noddle, Is the little song I'm singin' you of Wheat, Wheat, Wheat.

Plantin' things—an' grantin' things is goin' as they should, An' the weather altogether is behavin' pretty good— Is a pleasure in a measure for a man that likes the game, An' my father he would rather raise a crop than make a name.