"A wife is entitled to share her husband's riches, but, if he is poor, she must also share his poverty," said a judge in divorce in Sydney last week.

When the world is kind and life is gay,
And boon companion drift your way,
   When cash is plenty in the bank
   And a man can spend, a wife can swank
With frills and frocks and a streamlined car,
Gay parties and a cocktail bar;
   When the kids are sent to a high-class school
   And friends flock 'round to play the fool
With easy cash at golf and bridge,
And the wolf's afar o'er the mountain ridge;
   When a pound note looks like half-a-crown
   And a smile comes readier than a frown --

You can keep on loving, keep on living,
Keep on spending, keep on giving,
   Keep on drifting with the flow --
   Easy come and easy go.
Oh, it's simple lightly to vow,
While Fortune's smiling at the prow.

But when that pleasant season stops,
And the wolf sits down and licks his chops
   Outside the door; when the car is gone
   Because the payments don't keep on;
When the wife can't have her costly "perm"
Or get her frocks from the same "posh" Firm;
   When the cocktail bar's of no more use
   And the mortgage interest is the deuce;
When the kids must shift to a cheaper school
And lifelong friendships tend to cool
   As, one by one, friends let you down,
   And a sixpence looks like half-a-crown --

Can you keep on loving, keep on living,
Scared of spending, done with giving,
   Keep on battling 'gainst the fret --
   Hard to hold and hard to get?
Oh, it's then the day to test the vow,
When life is sinking in the slough.

"Den"
Herald, 5 April 1937, p6