To buy for school a copy-book <br /> I asked my Dad for two-pence; <br />He gave it with a gentle look, <br /> Although he had but few pence. <br />'Twas then I proved myself a crook <br /> And came a moral cropper, <br />I bought a penny copy-book <br /> And blued the other copper. <br /> <br />I spent it on a sausage roll <br /> Gulped down with guilt suggestion, <br />To the damnation of my soul <br /> And awful indigestion. <br />Poor Dad! His job was hard to hold; <br /> His mouths to feed were many; <br />Were he alive a millionfold <br /> I'd pay him for his penny. <br /> <br />Now nigh the grave I think with grief, <br /> Though other sins are many, <br />I am a liar and a thief <br /> 'Cause once I stole a penny: <br />Yet be he pious as a friar <br /> It is my firm believing, <br />That every man has been a liar <br /> And most of us done thieving.<br /><br />Robert William Service<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/belated-conscience/
