TO A PHILANTHROPIST.
I help that hospital? My doctor's fee Absorbs too much. Alas! I cannot be An inmate there myself; he comes to me At home.
Do not suppose I have too close a fist. Rent, rates, bills, taxes, make a fearful list; I should be homeless if I did assist That home.
I must—it is my impecunious lot— Economise the little I have got; So if I see you coming I am "not At home."
My clothes are shabby. How I should be dunned By tailor, hatter, hosier, whom I've shunned, If I supported that school clothing fund, That home!
I'd help if folks wore nothing but their skins; This hat, this coat, at which the street-boy grins, Remind me still that "Charity begins At home."