An inopportune joke is enough to provoke

Him to give you, at once, a month's warning.

Then if you refrain, he is at you again,

For he likes to get value for money:

He'll ask then and there, with an insolent stare,

"If you know that you're paid to be funny?"

It adds to the tasks

Of a merryman's place,

When your principal asks,

With a scowl on his face,