THE SECRET.
Reading edition
I told my wife a secret—
“And did she keep it?” say you.
Ah! therein lies the moral, man,
To which give heed, I pray you!
She kept it but an hour or two—
She then put on her bonnet,
And called upon her Cousin Sue,
That both might comment on it!
Alas! ere half the day was o’er,
Most dearly did I rue it!
Sue told it to a dozen more,
And they to others talked it o’er;
I found on coming from my store
That all the village knew it.
PORTRAIT OF GENERAL GREENE.