Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 17.djvu/440

434 There in full opulence a banker dwelt, Who all the joys and pangs of riches felt: His sideboard glitter'd with imagin'd plate, And his proud fancy held a vast estate. As on a time he pass'd the vacant hours In raising piles of straw and twisted bow'rs, A poet enter'd, of the neighbouring cell, And with fix'd eye observ'd the structure well: A sharpen'd skew'r 'cross his bare shoulders bound A tatter'd rug, which dragg'd upon the ground. The banker cried, "Behold my castle walls, My statues, gardens, fountains, and canals, With land of more than twenty acres round! All these I sell thee for ten thousand pound." The bard with wonder the cheap purchase saw, So sign'd the contract (as ordains the law). The banker's brain was cool'd: the mist grew clear; The visionary scene was lost in air. He now the vanish'd prospect understood, And fear'd the fancied bargain was not good: Yet loth the sum entire should be destroy'd, "Give me a penny, and thy contract's void." The startled bard with eye indignant frown'd; "Shall I, ye gods," he cries, "my debts compound!" So saying, from his rug the skew'r he takes, And on the stick ten equal notches makes; With just resentment flings it on the ground; "There, take my tally of ten thousand pound ." A BAL-