THE TWO WORKERS.
TWO workers in one field
Toiled on from day to day;
Both had the same hard labor,
Both had the same small pay.
With the same blue sky above;
The same green earth below,
One soul was full of love,
The other full of woe.
One leaped up with the light,
With the soaring of the lark;
One felt it ever night,
For his soul was ever dark.
One heart was hard as stone,
One heart was ever gay;
One worked with many a groan,
One whistled all the day.
One had a flower-clad cot
Beside a merry mill,
Wife and children near the spot
Made it sweeter, fairer still.
Due a wretched hovel bad,
Full of discord, dirt, and din,—
No wonder he seemed mad,
Wife and children starved within.
Still they worked in the same field,
Toiling on from day to day;
Both had the same hard labor, •
Both had the same small pay.
But they worked not with one will,
The reason let me tell,—
Lo! The one drank at the still,
And the other at the well.
Selected.