My Wage

I bargained with life for a penny, 

And life would pay no more, 

However I begged at evening 

When I counted my scanty store; 

For life is a just employer,

He gives you what you ask, 

But once you have set the wages,

Why, you must bear the task. 

I worked for a menial's hire, 

Only to learn dismayed, 

That any wage I had asked of life, 

Life would have paid.

Jessie B. Rittenhouse