So at least I always try
To kind o' say, in a cheerful way,—
"Well, it's got to be.—Good-by!"
They kep' a-goin', the years and years,
Yet still I smiled and smiled,—
For I'd said "Good-by" to my single life,
And I now had a wife and child:
Mother and son and the father—one,—
Till, last, on her bed of pain,
She jes' smiled up, like she always done,—