BUSINESS
by: Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)
- WO villains
of the highest rank
- Set out one night to rob a bank.
- They found the building, looked it o'er,
- Each window noted, tried each door,
- Scanned carefully the lidded hole
- For minstrels to cascade the coal--
- In short, examined five-and_twenty
- Short cuts from poverty to plenty.
- But all were sealed, they saw full soon,
- Against the minions of the moon.
- "Enough," said one: "I'm satisfied."
- The other, smiling fair and wide,
- Said: "I'm as highly pleased as you:
- No burglar ever can get through.
- Fate surely prospers our design--
- The booty all is yours and mine."
- So, full of hope, the following day
- To the exchange they took their way
- And bought, with manner free and frank,
- Some stock of that devoted bank;
- And they became, inside the year,
- One President and one Cashier.
- Their crime I can no further trace--
- The means of safety to embrace,
- I overdrew and left the place.
"Business" is reprinted
from The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce Vol. IV: Shapes
of Clay. Ambrose Bierce. New York: Neale Publishing Company,
1910. |
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