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Ella Wheeler Wilcox - Two Boys And A Cigarette
Work rating: Medium

Two bright little fellows, named Harry and Will,
Were just the same age and the same size until
One day in their travels it chanced that they met
A queer little creature, surnamed cigarette.
This queer little creature made friends with the boys,
And told them a story of masculine joys
He held for their sharing. "I tell you," quoth he,
"The way to be manly, and big, is through me."
Will listened and yielded; but Harry held out.
"I think your assertions are open to doubt,"
He said, "and besides I`m afraid I`d be sick."
"Afraid!" echoed Will, "oh you cowardly stick!
Well, I`m not afraid, look ahere!" As he spoke,
He blew out a halo of cigarette smoke.


Five years from that meeting I saw them again.
The time had arrived when they both should be men,
But strangely enough, although Harry boy stood
As tall and as strong as a tree in the wood,
Poor Will seemed a dwarf; sunken eye, hollow cheek,
Stoop shoulders, proclaimed him unmanly and weak.
With thumb and fore-finger he listlessly rolled
A cigarette, smoothing each wrinkle and fold,
And the smoke that he puffed from his lips, I declare,
Took the form of a demon and grinned from the air.
And it said "See that wreck of a man that I made
Of the boastful young fellow who wasn`t afraid."
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