The Jolly Miller by L. Frank Baum — Read

There was a jolly miller / Lived on the river Dee; / He sang and worked from morn till night, / No lark so blithe as he. / And this the burden of his song / Forever seemed to be: / I care for nobody, no! not I, / Since nobody cares for me.

"CREE-E-EEKETY-CRUCK-CRICK! cree-e-eekety-cruck-crick! " sang out the big wheel of the mill upon the river Dee, for it was old and ricketty and had worked many years grinding corn for the miller; so from morning till night it creaked and growled and complained as if rebelling against the work it must do. And the country people, at work in the fields far away, would raise their heads when the soft summer breezes wafted the sound of the wheel to their ears and say,