The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1875-08-20
THE DEFECTIVE NAIL.
BY THOMAS DUNN ENGLISH.

!
l looked at a carpenter mailing one dav
Some weather boards on in a workmanlike
way,
And saw that the claw of the hammer he
To a nail, which the moment before he had
tapped,
And, drawing it out, threw it by with a
jerk
Took another instead, and went on with his
work.
Whats that for? - I asked him. "Have
nails grown so cheap,
Ihat you toss them away as too worthless 10
keep"
''No," he answered, cit bent in the driving.
and so,
Lest it make a bad Job. to the ground if must
We draw while we're able he said, with a
grin,
'For can't pull it OUT, once we hammer
it in.
When the nail had been followed by one
that was good
] noticed beside it a dent in the vood-
Inc mark had been made by the base of the
claw
Through the strong force exerted the bent
nail to draw
And there the depression, to eyesight quite
Though twice painted over, will doubtless
remain.
No marvellous incident, certainly: still
H. set me 10 thinking, a. littie things will.
How habits, like nails, be they wrong ones
or right
Can't be drawn from their places when
And, though drawn ere they sink to the
head, leave behind,
By their drawing, some traces on BODY and
mind.
hcn young man seeks money, and moth
ing beside,
And, quoting Ben Franklin, his meanness to
hide,
Does small things for pelf, and with muck
rake in hand
Shows the crown overhead, petty gains to
command.
Though il end i'm that wealth he * auvfous
to win,
He has struck a bent nail, aud has ham
mcred il in.
When a dashing young man, at the outset of
life
Who has won some pure maiden, and made
her his wife.
Leaves his home and his wife for some low,
mUrky den,
Whe he drinks and carouses with dissolute
men,
The nail he is driving may crooken to sin
Better pull il out quickly, not hammer it in
When some neighhor Of those sees their
faults through glass,
i nat makes them too large for the censor to
pass,
And, with sense of their wickedness. right
eoUsly hot,
Calls one n mere miser, the other a sot-
he Il handling nail that isnot worth n min
Like a corkscrcw twill twist if he hammer
it in.
When a girl shows the world that She
surely thinks less
OF her culture aud conduct than gaddiug
and dress
When She eagerly seeks for confab with
those
Whose talk solely runs upon dresses and
beaux
Neglectmg home duties some street-varn TO
That nail will give trouble if once hammered
When wife finds her temper grow peevish
and sour,
And the tones that once charmed her have
lost all their power;
When she scolds till her husband. in fury
and pain,
Like fool, in whisky seeks oblivion 20
gain
'Twere better by far did she never begin
To tap on that nail, less hammer it in.
When some woman-wife, widow, or spin
ster, the same
Too eager to blow the dull Goals to a flame
The faults of her sisters brings closer to
view,
Calling this one street gadder, and that one
shrcw,
Her nail has flaw, is ill-shapen and thin,
As she'll find to her cost when she hammers
it in.
Enough for the lesson. The nails that we
drive,
Not through boards that are pulseless but
frames that are live,
Examine them well, closely scan ere too
late;
Shru1d t1,r,- yr,,-o q q -, ,.,...r -.
and quite straight,
Regardless Of sneering, or clamor or din.
Place each where il should be, and ham
ulcr 10 la.