226 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. IX. 



One day a customer came in to settle 



And begged his bill might be looked up, 

 There drawn against him stood a kettle, 



A pound of sugar, and a breakfast cup. 

 "And I find also," quoth the dealer, 



" Here sketched against you, if you please, 

 Nothing you see, Sir, could be clearer, 

 The portrait of a skim-milk cheese." 

 "A cheese ! oh no ! " the other cried, 



" I never bought a cheese from you." 

 . " You did indeed," the first replied, 



" And there's the figure of the cheese I drew." 

 And so he showed a round thing like the moon, 



Or any other round thing that you please, 

 A hoop, a ring, a saucer, or a spoon, 



But he who drew it said it was a cheese. 

 A cheese it could not be, the man protested ; 



And so there rose a very strong contention 

 Cheese or no cheese, they bitterly contested, 



And lost their temper in the hot discussion. 

 At length the dealer, making no impression, 

 Suddenly stopped and changed his ground. 

 " My good man," says he, "make at least confession, 



You lately purchased something round." 

 " Round ! " quoth the customer, " why, wait a bit ! 



Ay, sure enough, as I'm Jack Bilston, 

 (We'll square it now, the nail you've hit), 



I bought from you last spring a millstone." 

 Loud laughed the dealer ; "I forgot 



I see you did not try to diddle 

 To put within the ring a dot, 



To show the axle in the middle : 

 I mark my cheeses from my millstones so, 



But I was hurried on that day, 

 And so forgot the dot ; but you must go, 

 Well, here's the sum you have to pay." 

 The two shook hands and parted friends, 



And wondered they had been so hot. 

 A story's good if well it ends, 



And here you see's the wondrous dot . 



