Volume 158 — "SUMMER-TIME"
Reading edition
(with some moral reflections).
To-day I left my downy lair An hour before my wont; But do I consequently wear An unctuous smile? I don't. If with the early lark's ascent I soared from out my bed, it Is to an Act of Parliament That I must give the credit. When I escape, in butter's dearth, The fault of waxing fat, Calmly I view my modest girth And take no praise for that; Not mine the glory when my soul Abjures its ruling passion; 'Tis his, the lord of Food-control, Who fixed my sugar-ration. Hampered by regulations for The chastisement of crime— Arson and theft and marrying more Than one wife at a time— I like to feel some sins there be For which the law can't hurt you, In whose regard your heart is free To follow vice or virtue. Of one temptation I rejoice Especially to think, That leaves me loose to take my choice— My reference is to Drink; Here, where as yet no rules apply By Pussyfeet dictated, The merit's mine whenever I Am not inebriated. O. S.