Prosperity
By Douglas Malloch
It’s easy to haul on the level,
A tote-road that’s smooth as a floor;
You may have to work like the devil
An’ pull till your shoulder is sore;
An’ even a hill may not best you,
A little upgrade now an’ then—
But there is one road that will test you,
The test of both horses an’ men.
An’ that is the downgrade, my brother,
The place where you don’t have to pull;
The easy road, somehow or other,
Is one that of trouble is full.
The road up the hill you can master,
The long haul that’s level may beat,
But when things are pushin’ you faster—
That’s when you must keep on your feet.
Hard luck seldom conquers a fellah,
A man of the regular kind;
But when you will quit, if you’re yellah,
Is when things are shovin’ behind.
Right then is the danger of ditchin’,
Right then you are wantin’ to run—
So brace yourself back in the britchin’
An’ keep in the middle, my son.