Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 01.pdf/370

Rh Ampler provision for such crying want Than Mother Eve's traditional fig-leaf scant. And so I cannot surely tell which way
 * The lady lay upon the grassy ground;

Like Knickerbocker's hero, I can't say
 * She there a providential cushion found;

Yet so much I may confidently tell,— "Butter-side up" undoubtedly she fell. Now had she been a city lady fine,
 * And worn a "dress-improver," i. e., "bustle,"

Which gives to scrawny torsos Hogarth's line
 * Of beauty, she might well have stood the tussle;

But there was naught to break the cruel blow, So she went down like wall of Jericho. This ram had often tried to butt before—
 * Perhaps behind—the reporter does not state;

And witnesses their testimony bore
 * His owner had a knowledge intimate

Of this sad vice, yet did not tether him.. But left him loose to imperil life and limb. Her injuries the report does not disclose,
 * Whether in chief of body or of mind,

But twelve good men unanimously rose,
 * And fifteen hundred dollars did they find;

And this means much, for in Vermont a dollar Looks big as cart-wheel or a horse's collar. But few ram-cases scattered up and down
 * Lie in the books; I know there's one in Maine,

About a ram on poor-farm of the town,
 * For which the liability was plain;

But there is far less interest in these Than in this case of Oakes and Aries.