Tom bets apace at Ascot race:
Ah, Tom, it's all a do!
You're backing yellow, you stupid fellow,
And look, the winner's blue!
There goes, Tom Gad, a twenty pounder
As flat, you are, as any flounder.
* * * * *
Starting Post.
Weary and wet, the traveller meets a post,
No _Morning Post_—but one of dreary night,
That looks, beside, so very like a ghost,
That he—no _upstart_—yet _starts up_ in fright,
Winning Post.
And at the finger-Post his finger points,
Trembling, poor gentleman, in all his joints;
Then up comes Tom, a fellow of good heart,
And says, "I say,
That _Post_ is meant to _Herald_ you your way;
It is no ghost:"
Neck and Neck.
In Hamlet's play it does not take that part,
And here's a reason why you should not start—
"It's not a _starting-Post_."
The _winning-Post_—that is to say, the goal,
Vaulting ambition's route from pole to pole.
Racers.
Where, _neck and neck_ contending, Greek meets Greek,
Leg follows leg, the strong defeat the weak,
Where _score_ the graceful racers o'er the plain,
And the whole game is one _Leger_-de-main.
[Illustration:
Hedging a Bet.
]
[Illustration:
Walking over the Coarse.
]
[Illustration:
Don-Caster.
]
[Illustration:
Up-hill and Down-dale.
]