A Father’s Day Greeting

You talk of your grade of cattle,

And plan for higher strain;

You double the food of pasture,

You heap up measures of grain,

You draw on the wits of the nation

You better the barn and the pen,

But what are you doing, my brothers

To better the bread of men?

 *****

What of your boy?  Have you measured

His needs for the growing years?

Do you mark as his sire in his features

Mean less that your brand in your steers?

Thoroughbred! That is your watchword,

For stable, for pasture, for pen;

But what is your word for the homestead?

Answer, you breeders of men!

_Robert G. Lee, The Influence of a Christian Home