• It pinches me--but never mind!
• I WILL NOT CHARGE YOU INTEREST!'

• 'How good! How great!' poor Peter cried.
• 'Yet I must sell my Sunday wig--
• The scarf-pin that has been my pride--
• My grand piano--and my pig!'
• Full soon his property took wings:
• And daily, as each treasure went,
• He sighed to find the state of things
• Grow less and less convenient.

• Weeks grew to months, and months to years:
• Peter was worn to skin and bone:
• And once he even said, with tears,
• 'Remember, Paul, that promised Loan!'
• Said Paul' I'll lend you, when I can,
• All the spare money I have got--
• Ah, Peter, you're a happy man!
• Yours is an enviable lot!

• 'I'm getting stout, as you may see:
• It is but seldom I am well:
• I cannot feel my ancient glee
• In listening to the dinner-bell:
• But you, you gambol like a boy,
• Your figure is so spare and light:
• The dinner-bell's a note of joy
• To such a healthy appetite!'

• Said Peter 'I am well aware
• Mine is a state of happiness:
• And yet how gladly could I spare
• Some of the comforts I possess!
• What you call healthy appetite
• I feel as Hunger's savage tooth:
• And, when no dinner is in sight,
• The dinner-bell's a sound of ruth!

• 'No scare-crow would accept this coat:
• Such boots as these you seldom see.
• Ah, Paul, a single five-pound-note
• Would make another man of me!'
• Said Paul 'It fills me with surprise
• To hear you talk in such a tone:
• I fear you scarcely realise
• The blessings that are all your own!

• 'You're safe from being overfed:
• You're sweetly picturesque in rags:
• You never know the aching head
• That comes along with money-bags:
• And you have time to cultivate
• That best of qualities, Content--
• For which you'll find your present state
• Remarkably convenient!'

• Said Peter 'Though I cannot sound
• The depths of such a man as you,