Worse And More Of It

Oh what is worse,

     Or meaner, pray?”

I wrote, in verse,

     A friend one day,

“Aye, what’s as bad

     As, I would ken,

A grouchy, mad

     Old setting hen?”

My friend he was

     A farmer king

And new the cause

     Of everything.

A clever verse

     Straightway he pens:

“I know what’s worse –

     Two setting hens!”

March 31, 1913