But acquaintances not of the muscular kind

Began to observe that his brow was deep-lined,

Too brilliant his eye, and to wander inclined;

He appeared, in a word (early English), “fore-pined”;

And one morning his ledger and desk he resigned,

Explaining, “I can’t have my health undermined

By this ‘demnition grind’; and I’m getting behind

In my duties as Captain” (an office defined,

Page hundred and two, in the by-laws that bind

With red tape the great Hercules Club).