Three husbands once met in the street of a town,

In the street of a town as the crowd pass’d by;

And one had a heartache, and one was cast down,

And the other look’d gloomy, and said with a sigh,

“Yet we must toil that the children may play,

Though a night of disquiet oft follows the day;

And the old world goes on rolling.”

Three old men stood by the side of a tomb,

By the side of a tomb when the night drew nigh;

And they look’d to the westward, all shrouded in gloom,