I WAS never ashamed o’ de soil,
\nSo you needn’t remind me of it;
\nI was born midst de moil an’ de toil,
\nAn’ I’ll never despise it a bit.<\/p>\n
“Sen’ me back to de cutliss an’ hoe! ”
\nI don’t mind, Sir, a wud dat you say,
\nFor little, it seems, you do know
\nOf de thing dat you sneer at to-day.<\/p>\n
If I’d followed a peasant’s career,
\nI would now be a happier lad;
\nYou would not be abusing me here,
\nAn’ mekin’ me sorry an’ sad.<\/p>\n
Fool! I hated my precious birthright,
\nScornin’ what made my father a man;
\nNow I grope in de pitchy dark night,
\nHate de day when me poo’ life began.<\/p>\n
To de loved country life I’ll return,
\nI don’t mind at all, Sir, if you smile;
\nAs a peasant my livin’ I’ll earn,
\nAn’ a labourer’s life is worth while.<\/p>\n
As a labourer livin’ content,
\nWid at night a rest-place for me head,
\nOh! how gaily my life will be spent,
\nWid de baneful ambition gone dead.<\/p>\n
An’ when, after a day’s wukin’ hard,
\nI go home to a fait’ful wifee,
\nFor my toilin’ dere’ll be its reward,
\nA peaceful heart happy an’ free.<\/p>\n
An’ me children shall grow strong an’ true,
\nBut I’ll teach dem dat life is a farce,
\nAn’ de best in dis wul’ dey can do
\nIs to bear with content its sad cross.<\/p>\n
So I’ll make meself happy at home,
\nAn’ my life will be pleasanter yet;
\nI will take de hard knocks as dey come,
\nBut will conquer de worry an’ fret.<\/p>\n
Oh! a labourer’s life’s my desire
\nIn de hot sun an’ pure season rains,
\nWhen de glow o’ de dark-red bush fire
\nSends a new blood a-flow’n’ t’rough me veins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251,"menu_order":25,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-268","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":192,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/claudemckay\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/268","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\/268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":269,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/claudemckay\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/268\/revisions\/269"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/claudemckay\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/192"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/claudemckay\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/268\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/claudemckay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/claudemckay\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=268"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/claudemckay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=268"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/claudemckay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}