Country Sentiment

ADVICE TO LOVERS.

     I knew an old man at a Fair
     Who made it his twice-yearly task
     To clamber on a cider cask
     And cry to all the yokels there:—

     "Lovers to-day and for all time
      Preserve the meaning of my rhyme:
      Love is not kindly nor yet grim
      But does to you as you to him.

     "Whistle, and Love will come to you,
      Hiss, and he fades without a word,
      Do wrong, and he great wrong will do,
      Speak, he retells what he has heard.

     "Then all you lovers have good heed
      Vex not young Love in word or deed:
      Love never leaves an unpaid debt,
      He will not pardon nor forget."

     The old man's voice was sweet yet loud
     And this shows what a man was he,
     He'd scatter apples to the crowd
     And give great draughts of cider, free.