made me think of that pathetic poem, "The Three Warnings," in
McGuffey's Sixth.  I guess I gave Mr.  Pryor the first, that time
he got so angry he hit his horse until it almost ran away. 
Mother delivered the second when she curry-combed him about the
taxes, and Mrs.  Freshett finished the job.  The last two lines
read as if they had been especially written about him: 

"And now old Dodson, turning pale,
Yields to his fate--so ends my tale." 

The end of Project Gutenberg etext of "Laddie: A True Blue Story"