Sheep

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.