Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 01.pdf/320

Rh THE BALLOON AND THE GARDEN-SAUCE.

GUILLE v. SWAN. (19 Johnson, 381.)

UILLE was a man of high ambition, He looked down on the grovelling crowds; Men seemed to him of low condition,
 * His head was mainly in the clouds;

Above the sordid earth high flying
 * On wings of fancy and of thought,

He sought the cloud-land up there lying;
 * In fact, he was an aeronaut.

Swan was a different sort of fellow,
 * He rarely looked above the ground;

In products red or green or yellow,
 * About twelve inches high, he found

An interesting occupation,
 * With more of profit than of loss;

A very commonplace vocation,—
 * He cultivated "garden-sauce."

Guille one fine summer day ascended
 * In Mr. Swan's vicinity,

But long before his course was ended
 * He fell, like bad divinity;

Like Phaëton's, quite madly banging,
 * Sheer from the sky his car came down,

And o'er the side his body hanging
 * Threatened destruction to his crown.

He landed plump in Swan's smart garden,
 * The car bumped round with awful din,

He shrieked for help; not begging pardon,
 * Two hundred rescuers rushed in.

The peelers stamped upon the onions
 * And turnips upside down forlorn;

The mob mixed their unsavory bunions
 * With Swan's best article of corn;