When you, my first brief, were delivered,
Every fibre in me quivered
With delight. I seemed to see
Myself admitted a K.C.;
Piles of briefs upon the table,
More work to do than I was able;
Clients scrambling for advice,
Then Lord Chancellor in a trice.
I seized my virgin pencil blue,
Marked and perused you through and through
The story brief, instructions short,
Defendant in a county court,
It needed not an ounce of sense
To see that you had no defence.
But, erudite in English law,
I fashioned bricks without the straw.
Around my chamber-floor I sped,
Harangued the book-case on each head;
Demosthenes and Cicero
On hearing me had cried a go.
Then I must own that I was nettled--
Out of court the case was settled.
All my points were left unmade,
And the fee is left unpaid.
* * * * *
When may a lawyer’s clerk be considered most captivating? When he’s
engrossing.
* * * * *
[Illustration: RATHER INCONSIDERATE
_Policeman (suddenly, to street performer)._ “Now, then! just you move
on, will yer?”]
* * * * *