Up and down on the fresh-ploughed levels,
All for the sake of their lady fair,
Two cock-partridges fought like devils,
Hammer-and-tongs and a hop in the air;
And I and "Basket" Annabel Lee--
Elderly tinking gyp is she--
We leaned on the paling and watched it go;
And "Eh," said she, "now a fight 'tis cruel,
But of all the compliments 'tis the jewel!
May I die to-day, but I know, I know
There's naught as a young maid's 'eart takes better
Than a couple o' big chaps out to get her
Through a dozen o' dustin' rounds or so.
"Bet my bonnet it strikes you funny,
Seein' I'm risin' seventy-three,
To think o' me once as sweet as honey;
Lor' how their fists went 'long o' me!
Jake Poltevo and Pembroke Bill,
I saw 'em then, and I sees 'em still,
Eh, how their fists went--_thud! crack! thud!_
None o' your booze-house scraps, Lor' love 'em;
Turf to their feet and the sky above 'em--
Stripped, bare-knuckle and mucked wi' blood;
Queer thing, ain't it, I still thinks pleasure
In the strength o' a man, bein' old, by measure,
And plain, you'd say, as a pint o' mud?
"Scared me fine at the time, though; weepin'
I 'id my face in the 'azels low;
Tip-toe soon I was back a-peepin',
Couldn't 'a' helped were it never so;
Each as good as the other chap--
Bad old woman I be, may'ap;
But eh, I loved 'em, the fine young men.
Marry a one of 'em? Why no, never;
They wasn't a-marryin' me whatever;
But I likes to think of 'em now and then;
For, of all the compliments, _that_ was candy,
And--ain't them dicky-birds at it dandy?
I knows the pride o' their pretty 'en!
Eh, but I loved 'em, me fine young men!"
* * * * *
[Illustration: FROM FIFE TO HARP.
MR. ASQUITH. "ONE MORE BONNIE TOOTLE, AND THEN BACK TO THAT DREARY OLD
HARP."]
[Illustration: A FORETASTE OF HOME RULE HARMONY
"Mr. Devlin here interposed with a remark which was not heard in the
gallery, and Mr. W. O'Brien, turning round to where the hon. member was
sitting, called out in an angry tone something which was not clearly
heard."--"_Times'" Report._]
* * * * *
[Illustration: If only Sir EDWARD CARSON belonged to some other
oppressed nationality--Armenia, for instance!]
* * * * *