Mis’ Smith By Albert Bigelow Paine

   All day she hurried to get through,
    The same as lots of wimmin do;
    Sometimes at night her husban’ said,
    “Ma, ain’t you goin’ to come to bed?”
    And then she’d kinder give a hitch,
    And pause half way between a stitch,
    And sorter sigh, and say that she
        Was ready as she’d ever be,
            She reckoned.

    And so the years went one by one,
    An’ somehow she was never done;
    An’ when the angel said, as how
    “Mis’ Smith, it’s time you rested now,”
    She sorter raised her eyes to look
    A second, as a stitch she took;
    “All right, I’m comin’ now,” says she,
    “I’m ready as I’ll ever be,
            I reckon.”