Edgar Lee Masters (1868–1950). Spoon River Anthology. 1916.

92. Rev. Abner Peet

I HAD no objection at all

To selling my household effects at auction

On the village square.

It gave my beloved flock the chance

To get something which had belonged to me

For a memorial.

But that trunk which was struck off

To Burchard, the grog-keeper!

Did you know it contained the manuscripts

Of a lifetime of sermons?

And he burned them as waste paper.