Select Poetry.

Otago Witness, Issue 851, 21 March 1868, Page 14

Select Poetry.

. GOLD WORKS WONDERS. Richard, of spendthrifts, was the chief^ There ne'er "was such another : A barrister without a brief, No money, and no bother. 'Twas hard that he, so gay and free, Should have an elder brother. He paid no tailor for hia co.it, His duty « - .v to wear one He nft.'-n l.iuhed a nVe-pouml note, Bus neVr n menu t<> share one. In bl us; Ij.s vniou era'Ur.n.vi-" itejoice," In sorrow, "Gi-in ami !>ear'it '" His purse was emp'-y—j cc h spent As though his path, were sunny ; Borrowed at twenty five per cent:, AtoA gave away the money. (A fellow-drone could always own A little of the honey.) Luck turned at last, the brother died,, F<*r Death will not spare any, And Diek — the lord of acres wide — 1 dare not say how many — Inherited, the gossips said, A very pretty penny. His friends are now left in the lurch,. His manner's dry and chilling '; He'll give a hundred to a church, A neighbor not a shilling ; But as they no, he'll mumble low, ' " Unable, not unwilling." Write him a tale of woe, his eye Turns upward in the socket ; And then he lays your letter by, With date and careful docket. Call, and L doubt you'll find him out — Of temper, town, or pocket. Can gold work wonders ? Yes it can ; The cruel exerciser Has changed an honest thriftless man Into a grasping miser ; Less f ooliah, true, than him we knew, But not a whit the wiser.