You’d better git a plenty while yer gittin’!

An’ so he’s here a trusty, while I wear a ball an’ chain—

(They say he beat most every statoot written.)

He’s got a fortune planted an’ all I’ve got’s a pain;

You’d better git a plenty while yer gittin’!

He cost the state a million bucks before they put him here;

He had ten lawyers for his trial, w’ich lasted most a year;

An’ the jedge who had to sentence him pronounced it wit’ a tear—

It pays to git a plenty while yer gittin’!

The Memoirs of Li Hung Chang