MY task is now just nearly ended,
And you may justly feel offended,
To be so low upon the wall,
Or placed upon the list at all.
No one suspects that _you're_ a glutton,
And so you're served with cold boiled mutton;
Nor grudged, to aid your mental work,
That _luxury_--a silver fork!
Of course, you'll show no sort of blindness
To such extraordinary kindness.
A vulgar person, 'take your davy,'
Would have steel prongs, hot chops, and gravy;
I'd e'en be charged with platitude,
But what I'd show my gratitude!
Say that "Miss Laura's too precocious;
Jane so inert, Ruth so ferocious,
Rose quite an invalid; Miss Liddy
So most abominably giddy,--
You can make nothing--maugre raillery,
Of any of 'em but--the salary!"