MY WAGE.

I bargained with Life for a penny

And Life would pay no more

However I begged at evening

While I counted my scanty store

For Life is just an employer

He gives you what you ask

But once you have set the wages

Why, you must bear the task

I worked for a menial’s hire

Only to learn, dismayed

That any wage I asked of life

Life would have paid

Jesse B. Rittenhouse