In the fall of the year, when M.P.'s were about,
And speeches burst forth like a waterspout,
HODGE took up his bundle, and caught up his staff,
And went for a walk--if you please, don't laugh!--
Singing dumbledumdeary, dumbledumdeary,
Dumble, dumble, dumbledumdee!
Oh, HODGE had put on his bettermost smock,
And wore his billycock gaily a-cock;
For HODGE nowadays is a person of note,
And great Governments bow to the "hind,"--with a vote.
Singing dumbledumdeary, &c.
So he strolled on wi'out dread or fear
Of Squoire or Parson, or County Peer,
For the spouting M.P. and the Liberal Van
Had made of the shock-headed joskin a Man!
Singing dumbledumdeary, &c.
With promises stuffed, and with hope inspired,
HODGE walked, and walked till he felt quite tired;
So he sat himself down on the bank of a stream,
And, falling asleep, dreamed a wonderful dream.
Singing dumbledumdeary, &c.
The old, old stream was no longer the brook
Where he'd angled for minnows with worm and hook;
It swelled and swirled, and its rippling voice
Was changed to loud echoes of platform noise.
Singing dumbledumdeary, &c.
And it seemed to address him, "How long, friend HODGE,
In a smock you will slave, in a pig-stye lodge?
The Town revolts, but the landlord crew
Still rule the rustics. What can you do?"
Singing dumbledumdeary, &c.
"Oh, I can reap, and I can sow;
And I can plough, and I can mow;
And, as Lord RIPON doth treuly say,
_I can yarn my eighteen-pence a day_!"
Singing dumbledumdeary, &c.
"Oh, that," cried the Voices, "will never do!
HODGE now must have freedom, and comfort too,
And Village Councils, Allotments, and Larks!
Though the Landlords take fright for their Manors and Parks,"
Singing dumbledumdeary, &c.
"No more must he live like a pig in a stye,
Or _we_ (Tory _Codlir_, Rad _Short_) will know why.
And if you'll consent just to vote for _us_ now,
We'll put a new tune to your old 'Speed the Plough!'"
Singing dumbledumdeary, &c.
Then HODGE, slightly puzzled, beheld (in his dream)
A legion of faces that flowed with the stream.
"There's two WILLIAMS, and JOEY, and JESSE!" he cried,
"SOLLY, BALFY, and JOKIM talk, too, from the tide,--"
Singing dumbledumdeary, &c.
"They're making a vast sight o' noise, and I fear,
Whilst they all shout together, their _meaning's_ scarce clear.
They all drift one way, though, out yonder I'll sit!
And wait till the shindying slackens a bit."
Singing dumbledumdeary, &c.
So HODGE, like old HORACE's Rustic, still waits
Till the waters flow by, or their turmoil abates;
And then hopes to reach "Happy Home" o'er that stream.
Let _us_ hope that he mayn't find it _only_ a dream!
Singing dumbledumdeary, dumbledumdeary,
Dumble, dumble, dumbledumdee!
* * * * *
[Illustration: THE TRIALS OF AN ANXIOUS "JUNIOR."
PROMPTING A DEAF AND TESTY "CHIEF" IN OPEN COURT IS NOT HIS IDEA OF
PERFECT BLISS.]
* * * * *
"DICK" POWER.
When the House of Commons meets in February, it will find many vacant
places. Save, perhaps, on that sacred to the memory of OLD MORALITY,
none will draw towards it such sorrowful glances as the bench below
the Gangway, where, last Session, DICK POWER's smiling face was
found. Everyone in the House knew "DICK," and all liked him--a
modest-mannered, merry-hearted man, whom a strange destiny had not
only dragged into political life, but, as Whip of the Parnellite
Party, had made him the official representative of a body for the most
part socially unknown, and disliked with a fervour happily not often
imported into Parliamentary warfare. DICK POWER, whilst never swerving
by a hair's breadth from loyalty to his colleagues and his leader,
so bore himself that he was welcome in any Parliamentary circle, from
"GOSSET's Room" to the floor of the House, which he sometimes "took"
to deliver a witty speech in support of a Motion for adjourning
over the Derby. He was only in his fortieth year, married scarce a
fortnight, when comes the blind Fury with the abhorrëd shears and
slits the thin-spun thread. "LYCIDAS is dead!"; but he will long be
remembered as shedding through seventeen years a genial light on
Irish politics, too often obscured by aggressive vulgarity, and the
sacrifice of patriotic interests to the ends of personal vanity.
* * * * *