Page:Tom Thumb's royal riddle book.pdf/6

 6 The Royal Riddle Book : or,

A friend to vice, an open foe to truth:

I'm old as time, tho' in the bloom of youth.

Impudence.

I harmleſs am, but little underſtand,

I puff and blow, do good and evil.

I ſtrive with that which no man command,

I pray, good Sir, unfold my riddle.

A Bellows:

Noſe long, and belly wide amidſt the throng,

I move in ſtate to overcome the heat,

Then like a ſpouting whale I throw

My food, where it does fiercely grow.

A Water Engine.

In a green coat a thing is clad,

Wing'd for flight not ſeldom made,

Small, yet capers well, and ſings :

Pray tell me what may be this thing.

A Grashopper.

1 put ten guineas in my purſe,

the twentieth of December;

I took it out the twenty-firſt,

as I do well remember :

I told them o'er and o'er, and found

juſt ten in weight and meaſure;

Yet tho' their number anſwer'd right;

there wanted of my treaſure.

The Guinea that fell from 22 to 21 ſhillings.

Tho' ſenſe and motion in myſelf there's none,

in ſwifteſt hurry, and in warlike deeds,

The greateſt feats thro' me are often done;

and if I'm loſt, the braveſt ſeldon ſpeeds.

A Horſe Shoe.