Bob Browning and Timothy Titcombe and MeHad to take him the news: I was boss of the three,For I strode a donkey, they stump'd. Peggy threw,As we left her front gate, for good luck her old shoe;Then we heard the door slam, and we started abreast.Peggy's ass it was lame, and they ran at their best.
Not a word to each other, we just went the pace,--Me and Jack soon ahead, then them two in our place.I turn'd in my saddle and made the girths tight,Then shorten'd the stirrups and saw each was right,And the rein-buckle fix'd, though I knew not a whitWould that hard-mouth'd old jackass attend to the bit.
'Twas dinner-time leaving: so when we drew nearTo the end of the common our stomachs felt queer:There was blackberries there, quite a plenty to see;But Tim said he would not be waiting for me,Though I tried to persuade him the berries was prime;Till Bob bursted out with--We sha'nt have no time.
In the mid o' the common out came the hot sun,And I thought that my donkey look'd most overdone,And the thought made me wild as the others ran past;But I wallop'd him well till he gallop'd at last,With ram-headed shoulders a-butting awayAt Bob, which upset him. And I let him lay.
Cross the common Tim weaken'd, but choked out--You Sir!You wait or I'll lick you. I thought that that wereA thing to remember; I saw his weak kneesAs he stagger'd and leant against one of the trees,Out of wind, and then down on his marrowbones sankAnd Me and Bob went on, we two in one rank.
We kept a round trot: Bob did, so did I,Down the hill, up the next one. But Bob he was dryWith the dust. So at that I began for to laugh('Twas the donkey that work'd, I had leisure to chaff),Till at top o' the next hill Bob's gills they turn'd white,And he dropp'd there, quite blown, with the Gent's house in sight
There I left Robert fetching his breath on a stone,And Me and my donkey we rode on alone.I was jolly, I'd time enough even to wait,If I look'd out behind, between that and the gate;But donkey, it hadn't been all play to him,And I saw, as his head turn'd, his eyeballs were dim.
So I slid from my jacket, my cap I let fall,Then stripp'd off my pants, my suspenders, and allBut my shirt and my tie, so of weight made him clear,And patted his lean ribs and call'd him a dear,And shouted and holler'd and gave him the woodOn his ears and his crupper; and he understood.
And next I remember was folk standing round,As I sate with my knees in my shirt on the ground,And all of them praising this donkey of mine,As they fed him with thistles and ask'd me to dine.I was voted a brick too by general consent:But nary a nickel I got from the Gent.
