Читать книгу Mother Goose for Grown Folks - Whitney Adeline Dutton Train - Страница 12

"There was an old man of Tobago,

Who lived on rice, gruel, and sago,

Till, much to his bliss,

His physician said this:

To a leg, sir, of mutton, you may go.

He set a monkey to baste the mutton,

And ten pounds of butter he put on."

Chain up a child, and away he will go";

I have heard of the proverb interpreted so;

The spendthrift is son to the miser,—and

still,

When the Devil would work his most piti-

less will,

He sends forth the seven, for such embas-

sies kept,

To the house that is empty and garnished

and swept:

For poor human nature a pendulum seems.,

That must constantly vibrate between two

extremes.

The closer the arrow is drawn to the

bow,

Once slipped from the string, all the further

't will go:

Let a panic arise in the world of finance,

And the mad flight of Fashion be checked

by the chance,

It certainly seems a most wonderful thing,

When the ropes are let go again, how it

will swing!

And even the decent observance of Lent,

Stirs sometimes a doubt how the time has

been spent,

When Easter brings out the new bonnets

and gowns,

And a flood of gay colors o'erflows in the

towns.

So in all things the feast doth still follow

the fast,

And the force of the contrast gives zest to

the last;

And until he is tried, no frail mortal can

tell,

The inch being offered, he won't take the

ell.

We are righteously shocked at the follies

of fashion;

Nay, standing outside, may get quite in a

passion

At the prodigal flourishes other folks put

on:

But many good people this side of Tobago,

If respited once from their diet of sago,

Would outdo the monkey in basting the

mutton!