Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 046.djvu/217

1839.] Away, away, in wild dismay
 * He flew with all his might;

And his joy was vast, when he reach'd at last
 * A warren in his flight.

But ere he stole into a hole,
 * Secure from further fear,

A comrade, who spied the trembler, cried,
 * "What is amiss, my dear?"

"What is amiss! why, simply this,"
 * He replied with panting breath,

"Those greyhounds, see, have been hunting me,
 * Till I'm nearly run to death."

"Where, where?—But hark! I hear the bark
 * Of dogs upon your track;

But, i'faith, you err, for there's not, good sir,
 * A greyhound in the pack."

"Not a greyhound?" "No! for really, though
 * The difference is but small,

I see them now, and the dogs, I vow,
 * Are beagles, one and all."

What! beagles? Pshaw! the dogs that I saw
 * Were greyhounds, I'll be bail;

I am not blind, I know what kind
 * Of dogs were at my tail."

"Why, but for the fright, no doubt you might
 * Have known them with half an eye."

"I tell you, zounds, that they're all greyhounds,
 * As much as you or I."

While words ran high, the dogs came nigh
 * And nigher, in pursuit,

Till unaware they fell on the pair,
 * And settled the dispute.

Some authors discuss a question thus,
 * And, like this foolish pair,

Expend their life in wordy strife
 * On trifles light as air.

One morning, as they chanced to meet at sea, A chest of sage address'd a chest of tea,
 * "Ho! brother, whence and whither art thou sailing?"

And in a speech emitted or exprest— As speeches ever must be—from the chest,