Jim had heard about the city
Where the fortune seekers go,
With its bright lights and its pretty
Girls a-trapin' to and fro;
Of the fine fat jobs a-wastin'
For the snappy country lad
Who is keen to be a tastin'
Of the things where life is glad.
So he bought a one-way ticket
And he told the folks adieu:
Then as chipper as a cricket
Caught the "six-o-ten" and blew.
He had ninety cents in money
When he landed in the town,
And his knees they acted funny
As he walked and gawked around.
When he had but one small quarter
And a pinched look in the face,
He opined that it was sorter
Queer he couldn't find a place.
And where was all the laughter
He had read of in a book
And the friends that follow after
One like fishes on a hook?
As he thought of mother's table
And the wholesome country fare,
He could wish it were a fable
That he wasn't sittin' there.
And dad's meadow soft and yearnin'
Beckoned to his weary feet
That were blistered now and burnin'
From his trudgin' down the street.
And the friends back home who missed him --
Ah, he longed again to see
All their happy smiling faces;
How he wished once more to be.
In the midst of those who loved him,
Those who'd call him by his name
When he got back to the valley
Where wayfarers always came.
So he left the bright lights shinin'
And he hoofed it to the farm,
Where the clouds have silver linin'
And where hearts beat true and warm.
Let the others seek the city,
but, no sir,
boy -- not for him;
He just thinks of them with pity,
Does our disillusioned Jim.
(Copyright, 1940)
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