The Excuse

The Excuse written by William Henry Davies

From "Forty New Poems", (1918)

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' Why did you kill that harmless frog?
Tell me, my little boy,'
He hung his head for shame, and gone
Was all his joy.

But now a thought comes to his mind,
He lifts his head with pride:
'I only half-killed it,' he said -
'And then it died.'

This work is in the public domain in countries where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or less.