How Do You Buy Your Money?

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Title:     How Do You Buy Your Money?
Author: Edgar A. Guest [More Titles by Guest]

How do you buy your money? For money is bought and sold,
And each man barters himself on earth for his silver and shining gold,
And by the bargain he makes with men, the sum of his life is told.

Some buy their coins in a manly way, some buy them with honest toil;
Some pay for their currency here on earth by tilling a patch of soil;
Some buy it with copper and iron and steel, and some with barrels of oil.

The good man buys it from day to day by giving the best he can;
He coins his strength for his children's needs and lives to a simple plan,
And he keeps some time for the home he makes and some for his fellowman.

But some men buy it with women's tears, and some with a blasted name;
And some will barter the joy of life for the fortune they hope to claim;
And some are so mad for the clink of gold that they buy it with deeds of shame.

How do you buy your money? For money demands its price,
And some men think when they purchase coin that they mustn't be over-nice--
But beware of the man who would sell you gold at a shameful sacrifice!

[The end]
Edgar A. Guest's Poem: How Do You Buy Your Money?

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