I shot an arrow into the air, it fell in the distance, I knew not
where, till a neighbor said that it killed his calf, and I had to pay
him six and a half ($6.50). I bought some poison to slay some rats,
and a neighbor swore that it killed his cats; and, rather than argue
across the fence, I paid him four dollars and fifty cents ($4.50). One
night I set sailing a toy balloon, and hoped it would soar till it
reached the moon; but the candle fell out, on a farmer's straw, and he
said I must settle or go to law. And that is the way with the random
shot; it never hits in the proper spot; and the joke you spring, that
you think so smart, may leave a wound in some fellow's heart.