Tom Digges of Blackbird in the Poorhouse found
A pretty little foundling waiting to be “bound;”
“Maggie, I'm your master; on me when you look
Know me for a squire that never read a book!”

Maggie a goose feather stuck in Digges's hat:
“Master, I will know you by the sign of that;
All the fowls and horses and cattle by the brook
Are as great as you and never read a book.”

Tommy liked the compliment and told it “thar” and “yer.”
“Yer's an honest farmer, born in Delewer.
Them az books that's writed, give em to my cook!
I'm a man of business and never read a book.”

By the chimney fire, when the winter wails,
Maggie, growing pretty, told Tom pretty tales;
“Where you get em, Maggie?” “From a book I took”—
“I'm a honest farmer and never read a book!”

Maggie grew to freedom and afar would rove;
“Maggie, do not leave me, dead am I in love.”
Then the mules and bull calves bellowed as they shook:
“Tom Digges, the great man, never read a book!”

They then went to Lewes, as a ship in came;
“Master, can you read it, that great vessel's name?
'Tis the name one taught me who his babe forsook.”
“Danged if I can read it, printed like a book.”

Down came the captain of the “Maggie Lost.”
“You must be my father, to your daughter toss'd.”
“Darling child, I've found you. And is this your spook?”
“I'm the chief,” says Tommy, “that never read a book.”

“You have time,” says captain; “shipmates, take a look
On the one quadruped that never read a book!”
Maggie sailed away, then. Tom, he shed more tears
Than the water confined in the sea wall's piers.

Hard it was for Tommy late in life to read,
But he read the Bible at Love's greatest speed.
In a year the captain saw him shame-faced snook
Up the gang plank, pleading: “I have read a book.”

“Blow the speaking trumpet! Here's a sinner saved;
Come aboard, for Maggie pities you enslaved.
Fire the cannon, hearties, for a mate we've took,
Tom Digges, our shipmate, swears he read a book!”