Let this be a happy omen—that they’ll come as heretofore!”
Quoth the Surplus—“Nevermore!”
Much I marvell’d that so plainly it should answer, and so sanely;
Though in sooth I hoped its answer little relevancy bore.
For ’t had fill’d my heart with pleasure, and with ecstacy past measure
Once again to see a Surplus come within the Treasury door,
To observe a real Surplus on my Budget on the floor,
Like the one in ’Seventy-four.
But the Surplus, sitting lonely on my Budget draft, spake only
That one word already mention’d—I refer to “Nevermore.”