Page:The Ingoldsby Legends (Frowde, 1905).pdf/98

 Be the noise what it might, it drew nearer and nearer,

And sounded, as Pryce to this moment declares,

Very much like a Coffin a-walking up stairs.'

Mr. Pryce had begun

To make up' for a run,

As in such a companion he saw no great fun,

When a single bright ray

Shone out on the way

IIc had passed, and he saw, with no little dismay,

Coming after him, bounding o'er crag and o'er rock,

The deceased Mrs. Winifred's Grandmother's Clock!'

'Twas so it had certainly moved from its place,

And come, lumbering on thus, to hold him in chase;

'Twas the very same Head, and the very same Case,

And nothing was altered at all-but the Faco!

In that he perceived, with no little surprise,

The two little winder-holes turned into eyes

Blazing with ire,

Like two coals of fire;

And the 'Name of the Maker' was changed to a Lip,

And the Ilands to a Nose with a very red tip.

No he could not mistake it,—'twas SHE to the life!

The identical face of his poor defunct Wife!

One glance was enough,

Completely Quant. suff."

As the doctors write down when they send you their 'stuff,'-

Like a Weather-cock whirled by a vehement puff,

David turned himself round;

Ton feet of ground

He clear'd, in his start, at the very first bound!

I've seen people run at West-End Fair for cheeses-

I've seen Ladies run at Bow Fair for chemises-

At Greenwich Fair twenty men run for a hat,

And one from a Bailiff much faster than that-

At foot-ball I've seen lads run after the bladder-

I've seen Irish Bricklayers run up a ladder-

I've seen little boys run away from a canc-

And I've seen (that is, read of) good running in Spain ;

But I never did read

Of, or witness, such speed

As David exerted that evening.-Indeed

All I have ever heard of boys, women, or men,

Falla far short of Pryce, as he ran over 'PEN'!

He reaches its brow,-

He has past it,-and now