The Reson I Left the Farm

“The Reson I Left the Farm.
83.3

“”There’s that speckled calf, do you see him?
Well, he’s a Christmas gift for you, Jim.
He’s not been doing well this fall;
He’s got so he won’t come when I call.
But you can have him for a Christmas gift,
Go fetch him in ‘fore he goes on the lift.
“” Well I took that calf and I brought him in,
Though he was very little but bones and skin.

1 shelled his corn and warmed his milk,
And by spring I had him as fine as silk.
1 rubbed him and loved him and he loved me;
Why the way he showed it, anybody could see.
I could hitch him up and drive him too,
He’d Gee and Haw; anything a calf could do.
And he grew, well you never saw the beat;
Why he got too fat to stand on his feet.
Of course he was mine, they all knew that;
Mother said that was why he got so fat.
The neighbors knew him and asked me, “”Jim,
What are you going to do with him?””
I answered them that I didn’t know.
I thought it would kill me to see him go.
He would have to be sold, I did not doubt it,
But I didn’t say a word about it.
At last one day when out a-sawing logs
And a-shucking corn for the fattening hoga,
When I came home and went to see
My big fat steer, where could be be?
His stall was empty! Dear, oh, dear!
What had become of my big fat steer?
Says father, a-smiling (I can see him yet;
That smile of his’n I never forget):
“”Well, Jim, if it will be any rellef
And put a stop to your foolish grief,
His stay on this earth will be but brief,
I sold him today for Christmas beef.
Ha! Ha! You know he was a Christmas gift.
And, mind you, he gave me a right smart lift
On that plece of land just over the way
That you know I bought last Christmas day.
I’ve spent the money I got for him;
But I’ll give you a calf in the morning, Jim.””
That was all be aald. I went to bed.
But not to sleep, for through my head
Ran thoughts of how he had treated me
And nothing better ahead could I see.
I rolled and I tumbled the most of the night;
Got up and left home before it was light.
My heart was broken worse than your arm,
And that is the reason I left the farm.”