Page:Trivia (John Gay) to which is added London (Samuel Johnson) (1809).djvu/58

48 From side to side by thrusting elbows tost, Shall strike his aching breast against a post; Or water, dash'd from fishy stalls, shall stain His hapless coat with spirts of scaly rain. But if unwarily he chance to stray Where twirling turnstiles intercept the way, The thwarting passenger shall force them round, And beat the wretch half breathless to the ground. Let constant vigilance thy footsteps guide, And wary circumspection guard thy side: Then shalt thou walk unarm'd the dang'rous night, Nor need th' officious linkboy's smoky light. Thou never wilt attempt to cross the road Where alehouse benches rest the porter's load, Grievous to heedless shins: no barrow's wheel, That bruises oft the truant schoolboy's heel, Behind thee rolling, with insidious pace, Shall mark thy stockings with a miry trace. Let not thy vent'rous steps approach too nigh Where, gaping wide, low steepy cellars lie: Should thy shoe wrench aside, down, down you fall, And overturn the scalding huxter's stall: