Page:Poems Hoffman.djvu/286

Brave Perrim, he conquered them all
"Till with his ice-cream were provided
Two-thirds of the girls in the hall.

The young men glared angrily at him
As gaily he gobbled his theft
And the girls, why of course, the girls giggled
As he swallowed the cream they had left,
And on "the dry land or dry water"
Had such a sight never been seen
By his "forefathers" or his "foremothers"
And some beside Perrim looked green.
The thing was a dreadful enigma
But one fact was plain in its whirls
The boys had all treated Perrim
And Perrim had treated the girls.

"BE SURE YOUR SIN WILL FIND YOU OUT?"

Do you think, oh shrewd deceiver,
Because your well-laid plan,
For the death of a fellow-being,
Or the wreck of a fellow-man,
Was plotted alone at midnight,
When not a soul was about,
And carried out in secret,
That it will not find you out?

You have given it breath and being,
You have given it wings to fly;
It has gone forth a black-winged raven
To follow you 'till you die.
Like Poe's, it will knock on your chamber door,
It will haunt you the earth about,
It will trouble your peace at the midnight hour.
Be sure it will find you out.

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