"Oh! you always had those, horseshoe or no horseshoe," said Ned.
"I'm glad if I did," said Jimmy; "though I never suspected it. But now I should like to read you the poem, and get your opinions on it; because it's in a different vein from most of my others." And then Jimmy read us his verses:
| ODE TO A HORSESHOE. |
| Thou relic of departed horse! Thou harbinger of luck to man! When things seem growing worse and worse, How good to find thee in the van! A hundred thousand miles, I ween! You've travelled on the flying heel— By country roads, where fields were green, O'er pavements, with the rattling wheel. Your toe-calk, in that elder day, Was sharper than a serpent's tooth; But now it's almost worn away; The blacksmith should renew its youth. Bright is the side was next the ground, And dark the side was next the hoof; 'Tis thus true metal's only found Where hard knocks put it to the proof. For aught I know, you may have done Your mile in two nineteen or twenty; Or, on a dray-horse, never run, But walked and walked, and pulled a plenty. At last your journeys all are o'er, Whether of labor or of pleasure, And there you hang above my door, To bring me health and strength and treasure. |
When the reading was finished we all remained silent, till Jimmy spoke.
"I should like to have you give me your opinions about it," said he. "Don't be afraid to criticise it. Of course, there must be faults in it."
"That's an awful good moral about the hard knocks," said I.
"Yes," said Phaeton, "it might be drawn from Jimmy's own experience. And as he says, the poem does seem to be in a new vein. I noticed a good many words that were different from any in his other pieces."
"That," said Jimmy, "is because I've been studying some of the older poets lately. Jack-in-the-Box lent me Shakespeare, and I got three or four others from the school library. Probably they have had some effect on my style."
Ned walked to the door, and, standing tiptoe, looked intently at the horseshoe.
"One thing is certain," said he, "that passage about the toe-calk is perfectly true to nature. The toe-calk is nearly worn away, and the heel-calks are almost as bad."