It’s a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.
-W. Somerset Maugham

I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store;
For Life is a just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.
I worked for a menial’s hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have paid.

Jessie Belle Rittenhouse (1869–1948)