pe, is ever new--
But then, dear friends, the second line was _not_ for you!

I only quote that you may comprehend
How modesty in _me_ has missed its end,
And why it is I ever undertook to write
The story that I'm going to tell--sometime to-night.

An introduction that will keep the listener in suspense
I deem derogatory to good taste and sense;
And this is also why I'll nothing put as prefatory
Before I launch right out into the story.

I'm going to make it thrilling, crisp and short,
In purest diction drest, with gems of thought
So intermingled with the story's warp and woof,
That from beginning I can scarcely keep aloof.

I'll put quotation marks to shrive me of the sin
Of plagiarism when such language I begin--
That every one of you may plainly see
I tell the story as 'twas told to me.

So calmly, coolly then, I think I will proceed
To give you now the story--taking heed
To curtail all that truth and justice will permit--
Remembering that "brevity's the soul of wit."

But undue haste would cause me to forget
And mar the memory of its telling with regret
If I had overlooked some startling fact,
Which on both truth and justice would re-act!

And now, dear friends, don't think that you are "sold"
If still as yet the story's left untold--
But paper, ink, your patience, and my time
Are all exhausted in this race with rhyme!

* * * * *

Transcriber's Notes

Variations in spelling, hyphenation, and punctuation have been
retained from the original book, except for the following changes:

Page 9: raiload changed to railroad:
(From the raiload bridge, with its single span,).

Page 49: Aud changed to And:
(Aud do the very best I could the heat to struggle through,).

Page 56: Punctuation corrected from:
(Old "Bull "Spring?") to (Old "Bull Spring!").

Page 62: Their changed to There:
(There where briars in tangled network sway).

Page 101: Ephram's changed to Ephraim's:
(Was dear to Ephram's eye and heart, it was his claybank, Fan;).

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Old Hanging Fork and Other Poems, by
George W. Doneghy

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