Their sharp words once more force you to agree.

Then you insist that certain living men

Whose tones are half-discreet may be allowed

To greet their masters through the telephones,

Provided that their words are not too loud.

The new men imperceptibly entice

Their elders, and a compromise is made,

Both sides discovering that two or three

Excluded men must be correctly flayed.

And so the matter ends; conservative