| IT was only a little house of two rooms— | |
| Almost like a child’s play-house— | |
| With scarce five acres of ground around it; | |
| And I had so many children to feed | |
| And school and clothe, and a wife who was sick | 5 |
| From bearing children. | |
| One day lawyer Whitney came along | |
| And proved to me that Christian Dallman, | |
| Who owned three thousand acres of land, | |
| Had bought the eighty that adjoined me | 10 |
| In eighteen hundred and seventy-one | |
| For eleven dollars, at a sale for taxes, | |
| While my father lay in his mortal illness. | |
| So the quarrel arose and I went to law. | |
| But when we came to the proof, | 15 |
| A survey of the land showed clear as day | |
| That Dallman’s tax deed covered my ground | |
| And my little house of two rooms. | |
| It served me right for stirring him up. | |
| I lost my case and lost my place. | 20 |
| I left the court room and went to work | |
| As Christian Dallman’s tenant. | |
