"The Forty Acre Farm" (1879)
Song & Chorus
Poetry by Jno. [Johnathon?]  D. Yates
[Music] by Collin Coe

Cleveland, OH: S. Brainard's Sons, 341 & 343 Euclid Ave.
Chicago, IL: S. Brainard's Sons, 158 State Street
Detroit, IL: C. J. Whitney & Co.
Cincinnati, OH: Williams & Manss
Levenworth: H. M. Hortman & Co.
Plate No. 15230=3
[Source: 05416@LoC]


1. I’m thinking, wife, of neighboy Jones,
That man with stalwart arm—
He lives in peace and plenty
On a forty acre farm,
When men are all around us,
With hearts and hands asore,
Who own two hundred acres,
And still are wanting more.

CHORUS [sung after each VERSE]
He’s a pretty little farm, and a pretty little house,
And a loving little wife, just as quiet as a mouse;
His children play around the door,
Their father’s heart to charm,
Looking just as fair and tidy,
As the forty acre farm.

2. No weeds are in the cornfield,
No thistles in the oats,
The horses show good keeping
By their fine and glossy coats;
The cows withing the meadow
Beneath the beachen shade,
Learn all their gentle manners
From a gentle milking maid.

3. Within the field on Saturday he leaves no cradled grain,
To be gathered on the morrow for fear of coming rain;
He keeps the Sabbath holy— his children learn his ways,
He fills his barns with plenty at the close of harvest days.

4. He never has a lawsuit to take him to the town,
For the very simple reason that he has no fences down;
The bar room in the village for him has ne’er a charm,
I can always find my neighbor on his forty acre farm.

5. His acres are so very few, he plows them very deep;
’Tis his own hand that turns the sod ’tis his own hand that reaps;
He has place for everything, and things are in their place,
The sunshine smiles upon him, contentment in his face.

6. May we not learn a lesson, wife, from prudent Neighbor Jones,
And not— for what we haven’t got— give vent to sighs and groans?
The rich ain’t always happy, nor free from life’s alarm,
But blest are those who live content, though small may be their farms.