THE WALLFLOWERS.
TWO belated men from Oxford,
Members of a nameless college—
Pip, the philosophic smoker,
And his friend they called the Fluffer—
Men belated in the country,
Lost their way geologising;
Reached the city after midnight,
After lawful hour of entry,
By the gateway of the college.
And they did not rouse the porter,
For they knew the dean was wrathful,
And had vowed a weighty vengeance,
If a man knocked in belated.
But they gat them round a back way,
Where a wall divides the college
From intrusion of the vulgar.
Stole they down a lonely footpath,
And they halted where a sapling
Very near the wall was growing;
And above an ancient elm-tree
Stretched a downward arm in welcome,
To embrace the little sapling.
Each in turn his toe adapted,
Where a crevice in the stonework,
In the worn and ancient stonework,
Gave a short precarious foothold
While they climbed the little sapling.
Pip had scaled the wall, and sitting,
Helped the Fluffer struggling upwards,
When a Bobby, a policeman,
Irreproachable policeman,
Came upon them round the corner,
And remarked, "Gents, I have caught you;
You're a pretty pair of wallflowers!"
Then the Fluffer answered briefly,
Answered, "Bobby, you have caught us,"
And the careful Pip, the smoker,
From his seat upon the wall-top,
Echoed, "I believe you've caught us."
But the Bobby, the policeman,
Said, "I have not seen you do it—
Seen you over any wall get;
And perhaps I should not see you,
If I happened to be looking
In an opposite direction,
With my back turned right upon you."
Nothing further said the Bobby,
Irreproachable policeman,
Only grinned, and seemed to linger.
Quick then Pip pulled up the Fluffer,
And inquired, "Old fellow, Fluffer,
Have you any coin about you?"
And the Fluffer from his pockets,
Brought the bob, the silver shilling,
And the piece of six, the tizzy,
And the piece of four, the joey,
And the double bob, the florin.
Down he threw them on the pathway;
Then the Bobby, the policeman,
Irreproachable policeman,
Picked them up, and whispered softly,
Somebody had dropped some money;
He was lucky to have found it.
After that did Pip, the smoker,
And his friend they called the Fluffer,
Get across the wall securely;
But the Bobby, the policeman,
Irreproachable policeman,
Did not see them get across it;
For he happened to be looking
In an opposite direction,
And his back was turned upon them.
Odd Echoes from Oxford, by A. Merion, B.A.
J. C. Hotten, 1872.