Andy Hartigan's dead and gone
Over the hills and further yet,
But he drank good port and his red face shone
Like a cider apple of Somerset.
Ten strange couples o' hounds he had
(Gaunt old brutes that had hunted fox
Back in the days when NOAH was a lad),
Touched in the bellows and gone at the hocks--
Hounds he'd stole from a Harrier pack,
Hounds he'd borrowed an' begged an' found,
Grey an' yellow an' tan an' black,
Every conceivable kind o' hound.
He called them "harriers," and a few
_Were_ harriers--back when the world began--
But they weren't particular where they drew
An' they weren't particular what they ran.
I mind him once of a bygone morn
Ruddy an' round on his flea-bit horse,
Twangin' a note on his battered horn
An' cappin' them into the Frenchman gorse.
They pushed a brown hare out of her form
An' swung on her line with a crash of tongues;
But a vixen crossed an' her scent was warm,
So they ran her, screechin' to burst their lungs.
They ran her into my lord's demesne,
Where my lady's fallows were grazing free;
They picked a stag and followed again,
Singing like souls in ecstasy.
They chased the stag up over the ridge
With lolling tongues an' with heaving flanks;
They lost him down by the Cluddlah bridge,
But killed an otter on Cluddlah's banks.
They had no shape an' they had no style;
Their manners were bad an' their morals slack;
They were noisy, but wonderful versatile,
Andy Hartigan's bobbery pack.
* * * * *
High (Explosive) Finance.
"The issuing of premium bombs, whilst not, strictly speaking, a
lottery or gamble, would give such people what they ask for, and
that is a chance to get something unusual and tempting."
_Evening Paper._
Unusual, certainly; but tempting?
* * * * *
A War-Menu.
"GIRLS experienced Wanted to feed on Wharfdale machines."
_Nottingham Evening Post._
* * * * *
"BROADWOODWIDGER.--A new pipe organ has been installed at the
parish church. A recital was given by the Rev. C. B. Walters, of
Stokeclimsland, while a sermon was preached by the Rev. Canon
Lewis, of Launceston."--_Provincial Paper._
The Broadwoodwidger example deserves imitation. Some sermons would be
much more tolerable if they had a musical accompaniment.
* * * * *
"A mere automatic raising of the Income Tax strikes
indiscriminately at the just and the unjust; it is just as
likely to cripple the man who is supporting and educating a
large family sybarite."
_Evening Paper._
And a very good thing too. For ourselves, we have always discouraged the
growth of these bulky profligates in the domestic circle.
* * * * *
[Illustration: _Lady_ (_meeting small acquaintance_). "Hullo, Ethel, so
you've started one of those things?"
_Ethel._ "Yes, we're all having to come to them. Rather a drop-down
after the Rolls-Royce, but--war-time, you know."]
* * * * *