But now I wish I had learned to swim the right way,
Or had never learned at all.
Now I regret that day,
For it led to my fall.
I was a youth, and I heard the older men talking of the road to
wealth;
They talked of bulls and bears, of buying on margins,
And they said, ‘Be a sport, my boy, plunge in and win or lose it all!
It is the only way to fortune.’
So I plunged in and won; and the older men patted me on the back,
And they said, ‘You are a sport, my boy, a good sport!’
And I was very glad.
But now I wish I had lost all I ventured on that day—
Yes, wish I had lost it all.
For it was the wrong way,
And pushed me to my fall.