the youth with the writing tool Who does the daily Newport drool For the pursy publisher bland and rich Who bought the innocent paper which Was made by the man with the paper mill Who bought the pulp that paid the bill[Pg 72]  Of the Swedish jack who slew the spruce That came to a most ignoble use—  The lofty spruce with the glorious plume—  The giant spruce that used to loom In the heart of the forest primeval.

[Pg 72]

[Pg 73]

[Pg 73]

HOW THEY MIGHT HAVE BROUGHT THE GOOD NEWS

  We sprang to the motor, I, Joris and Dirck. I snapped on my goggles and got to my work. “Hi, there!” yelled the cop in the helmet of white; “Let her flicker!” said Joris, and into the night, With a sneer at the speed laws, we hurtled hell-bent To carry to Aix the good tidings from Ghent.

“Hi, there!” yelled the cop in the helmet of white;

“Let her flicker!” said Joris, and into the night,

  The going was poor, we expected delay, And the usual livestock obstructed the way. At Boom we ran over a large yellow dog, At Düffeld a chicken, at Mecheln a hog; What else, we’d no time to slow down to inquire; At Aerschot, confound it! we blew out a tire.

  I jacked up the axle and ripped off the shoe, And snapped on an extra that promised to do. “All aboard!” I exclaimed as I cranked the machine, But something was wrong with the curst gasoline. “By Hasselt!” Dirck groaned, “We’ll be half a day late; We ought to have sent the good tidings by freight.”

“All aboard!” I exclaimed as I cranked the machine,

“By Hasselt!” Dirck groaned, “We’ll be half a day late;

  False prophet! I tinkered a minute or two And again we were off like “a bolt from the blue.”[Pg 74]  We ate up the hills at a forty-mile clip, And skidded the turns like the snap of a whip, Till we dashed into Aix and were pinched by a cop For failing to slow when commanded to stop.

[Pg 74]

 “Now, wouldn’t that frost you!” said Joris, but we When we told the glad tidings were instantly free. The Mayor himself paid the ten dollars’ fine, And blew us to dinner with six kinds of wine, Which (the burgesses voted, by common consent)  Was no more than their due that brought good news from 

 Prev. P 48/75 next