I hailed you, reader, after ancient wont,
Crying "Bonjour!" upon my first fair page;
Closes my book in type of gloomier font--
For we are come into a perilous age.
Gone are the golden days of merry wage,
Of nymphs and laughing gods, of kings who ranted,
Of sober men who jeered me for a child,
Of merry fools who jeered me for a sage.
In factioned strife our troubled time is veiled,
Our poets sing, with politics inflamed;
Yet shall I not be counted to have failed
If you, who read me, read me once again!
And if two words my wisdom may contain,
Let them be Joy and Folly, unashamed!
HERE ENDS THE BOOK
BIGFOOT JOE & OTHERS
HANDSET & PRINTED BY THE
AUTHOR AND THIRTY COPIES
DISTRIBUTED PRIVATELY