Not a Cent

From The Topeka State Journal, March 15, 1913.
 By Thomas F. Porter.
 

 Happy is the man who is content
     With moderate wealth and store;
 Unhappy he whose mind is bent
     On ever gaining more.
 
 The road of endless greed is long,
     The journey dark and rough;
 So he but does himself a wrong
     Who seeks more than enough;
 
 For, with the piling up of wealth,
     There comes the added care,
 That when shall fail his strength and health,
     Will every joy impair.
 
 And yet on one the habit grows
     To dig, to drudge, to save;
 And ere a mortal hardly knows
     His call comes from the grave.
 
 Then people wonder and surmise,
     When he has passed from earth;
 And some are startled with surprise
     When told what he was worth.
 
 For, when his will is read, they find,
     Whate’er his heart’s intent,
 All that he had he left behind,
     Nor took with him a cent.