How Pa Changed His Mind

“Think thrice before you speak,” pa said

     And so I thought I’d do it,

Altho’ of course there might perchance

     Come round a day I’d rue it.

Pa stood out in the field one day,

     A ram ran up behind him,

And so it was my duty of

     The danger to remind him.

“Oh pa,” I said, I think” – he smiled,

     “I think you ought to jump, sir,”

But ere he’d turned around to see

     The ram gave him a bump sir.

Pa picked himself from off the ground,

     And said, his tines(?) rebelling,

“Hereafter, young man, think but once,

     Before you do your telling.”

Feb 28, 1904