Page:The Bab Ballads.djvu/106

104 It laid him up for many days,
 * When duty led him to distrain,

And serving writs, although it pays,
 * Gave him excruciating pain.

He made out costs, distrained for rent,
 * Foreclosed and sued, with moistened eye—

No bill of costs could represent
 * The value of such sympathy.

No charges can approximate
 * The worth of sympathy with woe;—

Although I think I ought to state
 * He did his best to make them so.

Of all the many clients who
 * Had mustered round his legal flag,

No single client of the crew
 * Was half so dear as.

Now had bowed him to
 * A heavy matrimonial yoke—

His wifey had of faults a few—
 * She never could resist a joke.

Her chaff at first he meekly bore
 * Till unendurable it grew.

"To stop this persecution sore
 * I will consult my friend.