THE TERRIBLE PLIGHT OF THE WISE MAN.
There was a man in our town
Who was so wondrous wise
That nobody dared speak to him;
And so he winked his eyes,
And said, "I don't know anything,
But all these people here
Are so afraid, they dare not speak,
And call me sage and seer;
"But, oh, if some one should forget,
And speak to me some day,
I really haven't an idea
Of what I then should say!"
And so this sage pretended that
His temper was most vile,
And people, when they met him,
Turned and ran away a mile.
And so it is unto this day—
He's magnified in size,
So that though he knows nothing,
All the town folks think him wise.
J. K. B.