This page has been validated.
6
I am a poor workman, you’ll easily grant;
And I’m as rich as a Jew, for there’s nothing want:
I have meat, drink, and clothes, and with them I’m content.
I live in a cottage, and yonder it stands;
And while I can work with these two honest hands,
I’m as happy as they that have houses and lands
I keep to my workmanship all the day long:
I sing and I whistle, and this is my song;
“Thank God who has made me so lusty and strong.”
I never am greedy of delicate fare:
If he gives me enough, though ’tis never so bare,
The more is his love, and the left is my care.
Though my clothes on a Workingday look but lean;
Yet when I can dress me,—on Sundays I mean,
Though cheap, they me warm; and though coarse, they are clean.
