"My family stock is increasin', while other folks' seems to run short.
I've got a right smart of a family--it's one of the old-fashioned sort:
There's Ichabod, Isaac, and Israel, a-workin' away on the farm--
They do 'bout as much as one good boy, and make things go off like a
charm.
There's Moses and Aaron are sly ones, and slip like a couple of eels;
But they're tol'able steady in one thing--they al'ays git round to their
meals.
There's Peter is busy inventin' (though _what_ he invents I can't see),
And Joseph is studyin' medicine--and both of 'em boardin' with me.
There's Abram and Albert is married, each workin' my farm for myself,
And Sam smashed his nose at a shootin', and so he is laid on the shelf.
The rest of the boys are all growin', 'cept this little runt, which is
Jim,
And I thought that perhaps I'd be makin' an editor outen o' him.


"He ain't no great shakes for to labor, though I've labored with him a
good deal,
And give him some strappin' good arguments I know he couldn't help but
to feel;
But he's built out of second-growth timber, and nothin' about him is big
Exceptin' his appetite only, and there he's as good as a pig.
I keep him a-carryin' luncheons, and fillin' and bringin' the jugs,
And take him among the pertatoes, and set him to pickin' the bugs;
And then there is things to be doin' a-helpin' the women indoors;
There's churnin' and washin' of dishes, and other descriptions of chores;
But he don't take to nothin' but victuals, and he'll never be much,
I'm afraid,