He Horribly Shroke

The teacher a lesson he taught;

The preacher a lesson he praught;

The stealer, he stole;

The healer, he hole;

And the screecher, he awfully scraught.

The long-winded speaker, he spoke;

The poor office seeker, he soke;

The runner, he ran;

The dunner, he dan;

And the shrieker, he horribly shroke.

The flyer to Canada flew;

The buyer, on credit he bew;

The doer, he did;

The suer, he sid;

And the liar (a fisherman) lew.

The writer, this nonsense he wrote;

The fighter (an editor) fote;

The swimmer, he swam;

The skimmer, he skam;

And the biter was hungry and bote.

H. C. Dodge, reported in Buchanan’s Journal of Man, October 1887