Pleasant Recollections

How dear to my heart was the check for my poem,

     When fond recollection presents it to view;

The first check, the last check, the only sweet checky,

     The moss-covered checky, so shortly I knew.

That much begrudged checky, that hard worked-for checky,

That tear bespeckled checky, so shortly I knew.

c. Sept. 30, 1894

Pub. in Boston Courier,

Jan. 13, 1895

(published in paragraph form)