I bargained with life for a penny
And life would pay no more;
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store.
For life is a just employer,
It pays you what you ask;
But once you have set the wages,
Why you must bear the task.
I work for a menial's hire,
Only to learn, dismayed;
That any wage I had asked of life,
Life would have willingly paid.
- Jessie Belle Rittenhouse
