Page:Thrummy Cap (3).pdf/22

 Sideways they started at the fight,
 * and whisk'd the gig half round.

Then cross the crowded market plate
 * they flew with furious bound;

First o’er a heap of crockery ware
 * the rapid car they whirl'd;

And jugs and mugs, and pots and pans,
 * in fragments wide were hurl'd.

A booth flood near, with tempting cakes
 * and grocery richly fraught;

All Birmingham on t'other side,
 * the dazzled optics caught.

With active spring the nimble steeds
 * rush'd through the pass between,

And scarcely touch’d—the car behind
 * got through not quite so clean.

For while one wheel one staal engag’d,
 * its fellow took the other.

Dire was the claah, down fell the, booths,
 * and made a dreadful pother.

Nuts, oranges, and gingerbread
 * and figs here roll’d around;

And scissars, knives, and thimbles, there,
 * bestrew’d the glittering ground.

The fall of booths, the shouts and cries
 * urg'd an the horses faster;

And as they flew, at ev'ry step
 * they caus’d some new disaster.