Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 01.pdf/369

328 THE SIGN OF THE RAM.

(40 Vermont, 347.)

[The owner of a ram, knowing its propensity to butt persons, is bound to keep it under safe restraint.]

DO not sing of Jason's golden fleece, Nor of the celebrated Darby ram; My quadruped is humbler far than these,
 * And for his curious history I am

Indebted to a volume bound in sheep,— Appropriate such ram's-horn lore to keep. One Mrs. Oakes, a humble farmer's wife—
 * (He had but one)—lived in the fair Green State,

And helped her husband in his toilsome life
 * By dairy work from early morn till late;

She brought the cows from pasture every night, And milked them all, and thought her labor light. One Spaulding, owning an abutting field,
 * Harbored therein a ram of temper high,

Which never would to soft persuasion yield,
 * But causelessly at any one would fly,

Demolish him with capital Ionic, And stand above him with a grin sardonic. One evening unsuspecting Mrs. Oakes
 * Had gathered in her moollies from the field,

When Spaulding's ram comes rambling by, and chokes
 * With rage, and threateningly his horns doth wield,

Then dashes 'gainst the busy woman,—slam!— This terrible assault-and-battering-ram! From what direction came this fierce attack
 * Is not recorded in the law report;

But I infer it must have been the back.
 * Because, if from the front, she had a fort

Of strong defence in gingham apron light With which she could have "shoo'd" him into flight;— Weapon provided by kind Providence
 * Against attacks of venomous wild beast,

Of which by pristine disobedience
 * The woman's danger is so much increased;