TARPORLEY SWAN-HOPPING 



IV 



To and fro in her flight she has travers'd the Vale, 

 She has lov'd on an ocean of claret to sail ; 

 Whate'er takes her fancy she thinks it no sin, 

 So her dancing-days, now she's a hundred, begin. 



You have heard in your youth of the Butterfly's Ball, 

 How the birds and the beasts she invited them all ; 

 So the Tarporley Swan, not a whit less gallant, 

 Invites all her friends to a Soiree dansante. 



VI 



Lest her flock at the Ball should themselves misbehave, 



The old Swan thus a lecture on etiquette gave : 



" Though, my sons, o'er the Vale you make light 



of a fall, 

 Beware how you make a false step at the Ball. 



vit 

 " In a valse if o'ercome by the whirl and the swing, 

 You your partner may fan with the tip of your wing ; 

 But expand not your pinions, 'twere folly to try. 

 In vain would their vastness with crinoline vie. 



VIII 



" When you sail down the middle, or swim through 



a dance. 

 With grace and with stateliness Swan-like, advance. 

 Let your entrance, your exit no waddle disclose. 

 But hold all your heads up, and turn out your toes. 



R 129 



