Said he: "Whenever there springs from earth
A plant all crooked and marred at birth,
   Shall we, unlearned in the Gardener's scheme,
   Blame plant or earth for the faults that seem?"
Said he: "Whenever your wondering eyes
Look out on the glory of earth and skies,
   Shall you, 'mid the blessing of fields a-bloom,
   Fling blame at the blind man, prisoned in gloom?"

So Joi had a son, and his name was Sym;
   Far from the ken of the great King Splosh.
And small was the Glugs' regard of him,
   Mooning along in the streets of Gosh.
But many a creature by field and ford
   Shared in the schooling of that strange boy,
Dreaming and planning to gather and hoard
   Knowledge of all things precious to Joi.

Now Sym was a Glug; and 'tis mentioned so
That the tale reads perfectly plain as we go.
   In his veins ran blood of that stupid race
   Of docile folk, who inhabit the place
Called Gosh, sad Gosh, where the tall trees sigh
With a strange, significant sort of cry
When the gloaming creeps and the wind is high.

When the deep shades creep and the wind is high
The trees bow low as the gods ride by:
   Gods of the gloaming, who ride on the breeze,
   Stooping to heaften the birds and the trees.
But each dull Glug sits down by his door,
And mutters, " 'Tis windy!" and nothing more,
Like the long-dead Glugs in the days of yore.

When Sym was born there was much to-do,
And his parents thought him a joy to view;
   But folk not prejudiced saw the Glug,
   As his nurse remarked, "In the cut of his mug."
For he had their hair, and he had their eyes,
And the Glug expression of pained surprise,
And their predilection for pumpkin pies.

And his parents' claims were a deal denied
By his maiden aunt on his mother's side,
   A tall Glug lady of fifty-two
   With a slight moustache of an auburn hue.
"Parental blither!" she said quite flat.
"He's an average Glug; and he's red and fat!
And exceedingly fat and red at that!"

But the father, joi, when he gazed on Sym,
Dreamed great and wonderful things for him.
   Said he, "If the mind of a Glug could wake
   Then, Oh, what a wonderful Glug he'd make!
We shall teach this laddie to play life's game
With a different mind and a definite aim:
A Glug in appearance, yet not the same."

But the practical aunt said, "Fudge!  You fool!
We'll pack up his dinner and send him to school.
   He shall learn about two-times and parsing and capes,
   And how to make money with inches on tapes.
We'll apprentice him then to the drapery trade,
Where, I've heard it reported, large profits are made;
Besides, he can sell us cheap buttons and braid."

So poor young Sym, he was sent to school,
Where the first thing taught is the Golden Rule.
   "Do unto others," the teacher said . . .
   Then suddenly stopped and scratched his head.
"You may look up the rest in a book," said he.
"At present it doesn't occur to me;
But do it, whatever it happens to be."

"And now," said the teacher, "the day's task brings
Consideration of practical things.
   If a man makes a profit of fifteen pounds
   On one week's takings from two milk rounds,
How many . . ." And Sym went dreaming away
To the sunlit lands where the field-mice play,
And wrens hold revel the livelong day.

He walked in the welcoming fields alone,
While from far, far away came the pedagogue's drone:
   "If a man makes  . . .Multiply . . . Abstract nouns . . .
   From B take   . . .Population of towns . . .
Rods, poles or perches . . . Derived from Greek
Oh, the hawthorn buds came out this week,
And robins are nesting down by the creek.

So Sym was head of his class not once;
And his aunt repeatedly dubbed him "Dunce."
   But, "Give him a chance," said his father, Joi.
   "His head is abnormally large for a boy."
But his aunt said, "Piffie! It's crammed with bosh!
Why, he don't know the rivers and mountains of Gosh,
Nor the names of the nephews of good King Splosh!"

In Gosh, when a youth gets an obstinate look,
And copies his washing-bill into a book,
   And blackens his boot-heels, and frowns at a joke,
   "Ah, he's getting sense," say the elderly folk.
But Sym, he would laugh when he ought to be sad;
Said his aunt, "Lawk-a-mussy!  What's wrong with the lad?
   He romps with the puppies, and talks to the ants,
   And keeps his loose change in his second-best pants,
   And stumbles all over my cauliflower plants!"

"There is wisdom in that," laughed the father, Joi.
But the aunt said, "Toity!" and, "Drat the boy!"
   "He shall play," said the father, "some noble part.
   Who knows but it may be in letters or art?
'Tis a dignified business to make folk think."
But the aunt cried, "What!  Go messing with ink?
And smear all his fingers, and take to drink?
Paint hussies and cows, and end in the clink?"