Fragment LIX: In a frail bark across the seas you come

In a frail bark across the seas you come,
Poor Clearistus, to my poorer home!
Yet shall your needy vessel be supplied
With what the gods in clemency provide :
And if a friend be with you, bring him here,
With a fair welcome to my simple cheer.
I am not yet a niggard, nor by stealth
Dissemble the poor remnant of my wealth:
Still shall you find a hospitable board,
And share in common what my means afford.
Then, should inquirers ask my present state,
You may reply,—my ruin has been great :
Yet, with my means reduc’d, a ruin’d man,
I live contented on an humbler plan ;
Unable now to welcome every guest;
But greeting gladly and freely, though distress’d,
Hereditary friends, of all the best.