{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/dime-story",
 "title": "Dime Story",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "James McIntyre",
 "poet_slug": "james-mcintyre",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems of James McIntyre",
 "book_slug": "poems-of-james-mcintyre",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1889,
  "venue": "Poems of James McIntyre (1889)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_11791"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/james-mcintyre_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_09542",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36068",
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_11791"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "We tell a tale, ’tis all in rhyme,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To show how boy earned a dime:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A parson who his flock did feed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On written sermons he did read.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "One day at top of pulpit stair",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He was thrown into despair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For he had forgot his paper,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And his thoughts were but as vapor.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But fortunate his own dear wife,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who often soothed his ills in life.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She found sermon on the table,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And found a boy who was able",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To deliver it in good time,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By promising to give him dime.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The boy to church did quickly run,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he the dime then fairly won.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So he went back to parsonage",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And demanded then his wage;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wife she asked the little vermin",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If he had delivered sermon.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Said he, “My contract I did cover,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I gave it to parson to deliver,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he delivers it with feeling.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the poor folks’ hearts he’s healing.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}