The Little Clock.

Kind friend, you do not know how much
    I prize this time-ly treasure,
So dainty, diligent, and such
    A constant source of pleasure.

The man of brains who could invent
    So true a chrono-meter
Has set a charming precedent,
    And made a good repeater.

It speaks with clear, commanding clicks,
    Suggestive of the donor;
And 'tends to business - never sick
    A bit more than the owner.

It goes when I do; when I stop
    (As by the dial showing)
It never lets a second drop,
    But simply keeps on going.

It tells me when I am to eat,
    Which isn't necessary;
When food with me is obsolete,
    I'll be a reliquary.

It tells me early when to rise,
    And bother with dejeuner;
To sally forth and exercise,
    And fill up my porte-monnaie.

I hear it talking in the night,
    As if it were in clover:
You've never lost your appetite,
    You've never been run over.

It makes me wish that I might live
    More faithful unto duty,
And unto others something give
    Like this bijou of beauty.

It holds its hands before its face,
    So very modest is it;
So like the people in the place
    Where I delight to visit.

Sometimes I wonder if it cries
    The course I am pursuing;
Because it has so many I-s
    And must know what I'm doing.

Sometimes I fear it makes me cry -
    No matter, and no pity -
Afraid at last I'll have to die
    In some far, foreign city.

It travels with me everywhere
    And chirrups like a cricket;
As if it said with anxious air,
    "Don't lose your tick-tick-ticket!"

Companion of my loneliness
    Along my journey westward,
It never leaves me comfortless,
    But has the last and best word.

I would not spoil its lovely face,
    And so I go behind it,
And hold it like a china vase,
    So careful when I wind it.

A clock is always excellent
    That has its label on,
And proves a fine advertisement
    For Waterbury, Conn.

Those Yankees - ah! they never shun
    A chance to make a dime,
And counterfeit the very sun
    In keeping "Standard Time."

Ah, well! the little clock has proved
    The best of all bonanzas;
And thus my happy heart is moved
    To these effusive stanzas.