(_Chant Royal_)
(_Being the Plaint of Adolphe Culpepper Ferguson,
Salesman of Fancy Notions, held in durance of his
Landlady for a failure to connect on Saturday night_)
I
I WOULD that all men my hard case might know;
How grievously I suffer for no sin:
I, Adolphe Culpepper Ferguson, for lo!
I, of my landlady am locked in.
For being short on this sad Saturday,
Nor having shekels of silver wherewith to pay,
She has turned and is departed with my key;
Wherefore, not even as other boarders free,
I sing (as prisoners to their dungeon stones
When for ten days they expiate a spree):
Behold the deeds that are done of Mrs. Jones!