Two Men Of Cologne
A LONG time ago, there lived, in Cologne,
Otto von Hiller and Rupert van Tone,
And Otto wrote fables,
But Rupert made tables —
"The very best tables that ever were known!
So said every sensible frau in Cologne.
"Friend Rupert," said Otto von Hiller one day,
"Come, tell me the wonderful reason, I pray,
Why men call you clever,
When really you never
Professed to have very much learning, you know,
And I—well, in truth, I've enough for a show."
I'm master of Latin,
I'm famous in Greek,
Both French and Italian I fluently speak;
I could talk by the year
Of our nation's career;
Yet, some one has said—to his shame be it known—
That I am the stupidest man in Cologne!"
Said Rupert van Tone: "If you'll promise to try it,
I'll tell you a secret,—I've learned to keep quiet."
"But I've so much to say!"—
"'Twont spoil in a day;
Who lets his tongue run like a vibrating lever
Stands very small chance of being called clever."
But he'd "so much to say," this Otto von Hiller:
'Twas now to the judge, and now to the miller;
He 'd appear without warning,
And stay all the morning,
Till his hearers would sigh as he left, "What a drone!
He is truly the stupidest man in Cologne."
But Rupert van Tone worked on at his trade;
He listened and thought, but his words he well weighed,
Till at two-score and twenty
He'd money in plenty;
And through summer and winter his mansion was known
As the home of the cleverest man in Cologne.
Emma C. Dowd.