THE BURGLAR AND THE EDITOR.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 496, 15 April 1881, Page 2

THE BURGLAR AND THE EDITOR.

A burglar climbed into the editor** room ; Needy and poor was lie ; And he saw in the dim, uncertain gloom, With legs as long as the stem of a broom, A pair of trousers. " I'll just freeze on to 'em." He chuckled with fiendish glee. He lifted them up frnn the back of the chair ; Lightly they hung on his arm , They were the editor's only pair, . Thinner than gossamer everywhere ; Oh, but the knees were worn and bare ; Good clothes—when the weather is warm. All over the room bo searched in vain, There was no more to find ; There was no sign of sordid gain, No passing drops from a golden rain, Only the wealth of a sleeper's brain, The peace of the editor's mind. He turned his back on that happy home, Thoughtfully lifting those pants • Out of the window he cautiously domb, He empted the pockets—a broken oo.nb, A stub ol a pencil, a manuscript poem, Answered his searching glance. He started, the tears flushed into his eyes, He leaned up against the fence ; A look of pitying, mute surprise Softened his face, he stifled his cries, Mo looked at his swag, and measured its size, Value about ten rents. ■ Inside his pockets—his own—he went, And he dragged out a ten-dollar bill, And lia hastily crammed it, every cent, Into the editor's pocket and bent The trousers into a wad, and sent Them over the window-sill. Then on to a wea'thior house he sped. " Twas a charity well bestowed," He said to himself. And when night had fled, And the editor rose from hi.s virtuous bed, And found the money, lie whistled, anb said, " Well, lam essentially blo.ved !" ~