SIX WISE FOOLS

Twelve had struck. Our talk subsided.

We were comrades in the schools

By the world awhile divided —

Six sententious merry fools.

And I said, “We‘ ve talked of college,

Resurrecting callow youth.

But you since have lived; what knowledge

Have you gathered of the Truth?

And you first, most learned scholar,

Whom I‘ m proud to sit beside,

Speak: does wisdom sans a dollar

Leave you wholly satisfied?

You have walked, and never wavered,

In the paths the sages took

And three publishers have favoured

With a yet unpublished book.

The soul's garden you have weeded

Which we mortals trample through,

You love much we leave unheeded.

Speak, and let us learn of you.”

And the student thus proceeded,

As a gentle sigh he drew: