<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Clerk</h1><p class="byline"> B.G.M. HETHERINGTON <br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/><span class="smallcaps">IN The London Bookman</span></p><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Perched upon an office stool, neatly adding figures, </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">With cuffs gone shiny and a pen behind his ear;</p><p class="line">Deep in Liabilities. Goods and Double Entry, </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">So he worked from year to year.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Diligent and careful, hedged about with figure,, </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Given soul and body to discount and per cent;</p><p class="line">Bounded by the columns of Purchase Book and Journal </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Soberly his moments went.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Now his pen has ceased from adding rows of figures </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Ceased from ruling ledgers and entering amounts:</p><p class="line">Clad in sodden khaki, with a gun in Flanderc </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">He is balancing accounts </p></div></body></html> · Great War