A KING'S GRATITUDE.

Plain men have fitful moods and so have Kings,

For Kings are only men, and often made

Of clay as common as e'er stained a spade.

But when the great are moody, then, the strings

Of gilded harps are smitten, and their strains

Are soft and soothing as the Summer rains.

And Saul was taken by an evil mood,

He felt within himself his spirit faint:

In vain he tossed upon his couch and wooed

Refreshing slumbers. Sleep knows no constraint!

Then David came: his physic and advice

All in a harp, and cleared the mind of Saul —

And Saul thereafter launched his javelin twice

To nail the harper to the palace wall!