Guy Wetmore Carryl

“ Said: “Now I’ll do somebody good!
I won’t ask a thing for myself or my wife,
But I’ll make all my neighbors with happiness rife.
Whate’er their conditions, Henceforward, physicians
And indispositions
They’re rid of for life!” ”

“ And plied him with liniments, powders, and pills,
And charged him so dearly
That all of them nearly
Made double the yearly amount of their bills.
This Moral by the tale is taught: —
The wish is father to the thought.
(We’d oftentimes escape the worst
If but the thinking part came first!) ”