Explore "Business" by Ambrose Bierce on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Two villains of the highest rank / Set out one night to rob a bank.
They found the building, looked it o'er, / Each window noted, tried each door, / Scanned carefully the lidded hole / For minstrels to cascade the coal -- / In short, examined five-and-twenty / Good paths from poverty to plenty.
But all were sealed, they saw full soon, / Against the minions of the moon. / "Enough," said one: "I'm satisfied." / The other, smiling fair and wide, / Said: "I'm as highly pleased as you: / No burglar ever can get through.
Fate surely prospers our design -- / The booty all is yours and mine." / So, full of hope, the following day / To the exchange they took their way / And bought, with manner free and frank, / Some stock of that devoted bank; / And they became, inside the year, / One President and one Cashier.
Their crime I can no further trace -- / The means of safety to embrace, / I overdrew and left the place.