timid girl;
With bright illuminations
I decked the manuscript,
And in my choicest paints and inks
My brush and pen I dipt.

Indeed it had been tedious
But that a flattered smile
Played on my rugged features
And eased my toil the while.
I was assured my poem
Would fill her with delight--
I fancied she was pretty--
I knew that she was bright!

And for a spell thereafter
That unknown damsel's face
With its worshipful expression
Pursued me every place;
Meseemed to hear her whisper:
"O, thank you, gifted sir,
For the overwhelming honor
You so graciously confer!"

But a catalogue from Benjamin's
Disproves what things meseemed--
Dispels with savage certainty
The flattering dreams I dreamed;
For that poor "favorite poem,"
Done and signed in autograph,
Is listed in "Cheap Items"
At a dollar-and-a-half.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac, by Eugene Field

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