BUSH BALLADS AND RHYMES 



The crack half extended look'd bloodlike and 

 splendid, 

 Held wide on the right where the headland 

 was sound. 



I pulled hard to baffle her rush with the 

 snaffle, 

 Before her two-thirds of the field got away, 

 All through the wet pasture where floods of 

 the last year 

 Still loitered, they clotted my crimson with 

 clay. 



The fourth fence, a wattle, floor'd Monk and 

 Bluebottle ; 

 The Drag came to grief at the blackthorn 

 and ditch. 

 The rails toppled over Redoubt and Red 

 Rover, 

 The lane stopped Lycurgus and Leicester- 

 shire Witch. 



She passed like an arrow Kildare and Cock 

 Sparrow, 

 And Mantrap and Mermaid refused the 

 stone wall ; 



2IO 



