From the recording The Stay-at-Home

Reece made it clear in his letters and other writings that it was very difficult for him to balance his time and energy between farming and his literary career.  I've always thought of this as his credo.
 
See YouTube video here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8_eeFpsy9Y&feature=related
 

Lyrics

The Stay-at-Home
 
 
The fields of Hughly held him,
The land where he was born.
With fence to mend and cows to tend
And care of wheat and corn
He had no lief to wander
Beyond his place of birth,
But often he would ponder
The luring lands of earth.
 
He loved the fields of Hughly
And every hill that stood
To bind him in with other men
Like him in bone and blood,
Who often thought of going
But had the will to stay
And turn them to their hoeing
When cocks crew up the day.
 
Yet as the gypsy-hearted
Hearken when distance sings,
The sounds he most regarded
Were all of passing things:Swift waters flowing,
Winds to westward blowing,
Footsteps outward going
And wild, wandering wings.