“LELIA gal, why in this town do you stay?
\nWhy, tell me, why did you wander away?
\nWhy will you aimlessly foolishly roam,
\nWon’t you come back to your old country home?”<\/p>\n
“Country life, Fed, has no pleasures for me,
\nI wanted de gay o’ de city to see,
\nTo wear ebery Sunday a prettier gown,
\nDa’s why I came to de beautiful town.”<\/p>\n
“Well, have you gotten de joys dat you sought?
\nIf so, were not all o’ dem too dearly bought?
\nYes, Liel, you do wear a prettier dress,
\nBut have you not suffered, my girl, more or less?<\/p>\n
“Hold up your head! look not down, tell me truth,
\nHave you not bartered your innocent youth?
\nAre you de Lelia, true Lelia, of old,
\nOr have you swopped out your honour for gold? ”<\/p>\n
“Fed, it was horrid de lone country life!
\nI suffered-for sometimes e’en hunger was rife;
\nAn’ when I came, Fed, to try my chance here,
\nI thought there would be no more troubles to bear.<\/p>\n
“But troubles there were an’ in plenty, my lad,
\nOh, dey were bitter, an’ oh, I was sad!
\nWeary an’ baffled an’ hungry an’ lone,
\nI gave up my spirit to sigh an’ to moan.<\/p>\n
“After dat?\u2014O, Feddy, press me not so:
\nDe truth ?\u2014well, I sank to de lowest of de low;
\nI gave up all honour, I took a new name
\nAn’ tried to be happy, deep sunk in de shame.<\/p>\n
“Dere was no other way, Fed, I could live,
\nDat was de gift dat a gay town could give;
\nI tried to be glad in de open daylight,
\nBut sorrowed an’ moaned in de deep o’ de night.<\/p>\n
“No, Fed, I never could go home again:
\n‘Worse than I left it? ‘ ah, there was de pain,
\nTo meet up wid some o’ my former schoolmates
\nAn’ listen to all o’ deir taunts an’ deir hates.<\/p>\n
“Dere now, you bound me to tell you o’ all,
\nOf all de sad suff’rings dat led to my fall;
\nI’m gone past reclaiming, so what must I do
\nBut live de bad life an’ mek de good go?”<\/p>\n
“Lelia, I want you to come out de sin,
\nCome home an’ try a new life fe begin;
\nMek up you min’, gal, fe wuk wid you’ han’,
\nPlant peas an’ corn in de fat country Ian’.<\/p>\n
“Dere is no life, gal, so pleasant, so good,
\nContented and happy you’ll eat your lee food;
\nNo one at home know ’bout wha’ you’ve jes’ said,
\nSo, Liel, of exposure you needn’t be ‘fraid.”<\/p>\n
“Don’t t’ink I care ’bout exposure, my boy!
\nDat which you call sin is now fe me joy;
\nCountry for Lelia will have no more charm,
\nI’ll live on de same way, ’twill do me no harm.<\/p>\n
“And after all, many gals richer than me,
\nPretty white girlies of better degree,
\nLive as I do, an’ are happy an’ gay,
\nThen why should not I be as happy as they?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251,"menu_order":45,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-175","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/claudemckay\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/claudemckay\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/claudemckay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/claudemckay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/claudemckay\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/claudemckay\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/175\/revisions\/176"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/claudemckay\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/claudemckay\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/175\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/claudemckay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/claudemckay\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=175"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/claudemckay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=175"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/claudemckay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}