DIAMOND SCRATCHES.
Five years ago in the city inn, We passed a pleasant day ; Four merry friends, who ate and drack And were blithe as birds in May. We scratched our names on the window pane; There they stand in the sheen, And prove to me, it to nobody else, What fools we must have been. One of them borrowed my cash (a dove That never returned to the ark) ; The second was jealous of my fame, And stabbed it in the dark ; The third made love to a bonny wee maid, Dearer to me than life — Wooed her and won her behind my back, And made her his wretched wife. And here I sit in the copy inn, While the bright wood splinters blaze, And drank my pint of claret alone, And think of the by-gone days, And wonder which of my three false friends I hate or despise the most. Surely not him who borrowed my cash ; Tis gone— 'tis a bodiless gho?t ! Surely not him who stole my wife, That was not my wife, God wot ! But might have been, to my dire distress, Had she fallen to my lot. I think I hate with the deadliest hate The fellow who slurred my nameShaking my hand, and eating my bread, And murdering my fame. — Sidney, C«rlton in "To-Day."
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Bibliographic details
Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2137, 20 March 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)
Word Count
221DIAMOND SCRATCHES. Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2137, 20 March 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)
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