Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1901 edition. Excerpt: ... THE BILLS i HEAR the postman with the bills--Little bills! What a secret misery the sight of them instils! How they flutter, flutter, flutter In their envelopes of blue, While you open them and mutter, In a whisper or a stutter, "What the deuce am I to do?" Thinking where, where, where Is the money that shall square Every paltry, petty item, that monotonously fills Little bills, bills, bills, bills, Bills, bills, bills? Ah! those saddening little, maddening little bills! n Read the lengthy household bills--Awful bills! Glancing at their totals grim, the brain with horror thrills. From the East and from the West How they echo one request: "A remittance must be sent Without delay." Food and coals and clothes and rent--It is hideous to reflect on what is meant By Quarter Day. And, enthroned amidst your cares, Impecuniosity impertinently stares. How it chills! How it kills All the future, how it fills With the haunting fear of ills, Does that pressing and distressing File of bills, bills, bills--Those offensive, comprehensive household bills! in There's another sort of bills--Brazen bills! Each its diabolic task effectively fulfils, How all hunger to be paid In that paper cannonade! Will the trouble never end? Still they send and send and send, Day and night, In a clamorous appealing to the debtor's scanty purse, In a wild and greedy grabbing for the starved and shrunken purse; And you curse, curse, curse, Sinking sure from bad to worse, Till a resolute endeavour Cries, "Now--now flit, or never, And renounce the unequal fight!" Oh, the bills, bills, bills--They are bitter, bitter pills To digest. Smiling ghosts of pleasures flown, Lo! we greet ye with a groan; Ye will never more return, sweet hours of rest. We shall have no more repose From...