The Richer Mines

No man is so poor but that he is a stockholder. Yet many a man has no real riches; his stocks draw dividends in dollars and cents only.

When it comes to buying shares
    In the mines of earth,
  May I join the millionaires
    Who are rich in mirth.

Let me have a heavy stake
    In fresh mountain air—
  I will promise now to take
    All that you can spare.

When you’re setting up your claim
    In the Mines of Glee,
  Don’t forget to use my name—
    You can count on me.

Nothing better can be won,
    Freer from alloy,
  Than a bouncing claim in “Con-
    Solidated Joy.”

You can have your Copper Stocks
    Gold and tin and coal—
  What I’d have within my box
    Has to do with Soul.

John Kendrick Bangs.

From “Songs of Cheer.”