Sheep by James McIntyre — Read

This advantage hath the sheep, / Two crops each yoar from them you reap;

You get big price for tender lamb, / And crop of wool from shearing dam.

Industrious wife can spin the yarn, / And knit the socks, or old ones darn;

Or weave it up in her own loom, / And thrift to wealth it soon will bloom.

Or if to weaving she is loath, / She can sell wool and buy her cloth, / Or buy her hose knit by machine, / And life enjoy like to a queen.

But very oft the farmer's wife / Has to work hard through all her life;

If husband has to drive the ploughs, / The wife perhaps must milk the cows.

And she too may churn the butter, / And no grumble she doth utter;

Though she doth work as hard as slave, / All trials she doth nobly brave.

Oft times large family she doth raise, / Her virtues they have cause to praise;

A guardian angel o'er her young, / When they were feeble round her clung.