"Enter my coach, sweet child," said I,
"For you shall ride with me;
And I will get you your supply
Of mother's eau-de-vie."
The publican was stern and cold,
And said: "Her mother's score
Is writ, as you shall soon behold,
Behind the bar-room door!"
I blotted out the score with tears,
And paid the money down;
And took the maid of thirteen years
Back to her mother's town.
And though the past with surges wild
Fond memories may sever,
The vision of that happy child
Will leave my spirits never!
Rudyard Kipling [1865-1936]
FATHER WILLIAM
From "Alice in Wonderland"
After Southey
"You are old, Father William," the young man said,
"And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head—
Do you think, at your age, it is right?"
"In my youth," Father William replied to his son,
"I feared it might injure the brain;
But, now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again."