Our Fortune

LEWIS MILES, 1858

 

Like a jar cracked in two,

the country is splitting.

A war is coming

between the South and the North.

In a time of war,

our hard-earned fortune

will be worthless

if kept as paper money.

But gold and silver will endure.

I will have Dave make me

a small jar each month,

more solid than the earth.

Every month I will buy

some gold or silver

and fill a jar,

then bury it deep

in the ground.

There our fortune will stay

until our country

is at peace.