A Line-o’-Verse or Two
By
Bert Leston Taylor
The Reilly & Britton Co.
Chicago
Copyright, 1911
by
The Reilly & Britton Co.
NOTE
For the privilege of reprinting the rimes gatheredhere I am indebted to the courtesy ofthe Chicago Tribune and Puck, in whose pagesmost of them first appeared. “The Lay of St.Ambrose” is new.
One reason for rounding up this fugitiveverse and prisoning it between covers was this:Frequently—more or less—I receive a requestfor a copy of this jingle or that, and it is easierto mention a publishing house than to searchthrough ancient and dusty files.
The other reason was that I wanted to.
B. L. T.
TO MY READERS
Not merely of this book,—but a larger company,with whom, through the medium of the ChicagoTribune, I have been on very pleasant terms forseveral years,—this handful of rime is joyouslydedicated.
THE LAY OF ST. AMBROSE
“And hard by doth dwell, in St. Catherine’s cell,
Ambrose, the anchorite old and grey.”
—The Lay of St. Nicholas.
Ambrose the anchorite old and grey
Larruped himself in his lonely cell,
And many a welt on his pious pelt
The scourge evoked as it rose and fell.
For hours together the flagellant leather
Went whacketty-whack with his groans of pain;
And the lay-brothers said, with a wag of the head,
“Ambrose has been at the bottle again.”
And such, in sooth, was the sober truth;
For the single fault of this saintly soul
Was a desert thirst for the cup accurst,—
A quenchless love for the Flowing Bowl.
When he woke at morn with a head forlorn
And a taste like a last-year swallow’s nest,
He would kneel and pray, then rise and flay
His sinful body like all possessed.
Frequently tempted, he fell from grace,
And as often he found the devil to pay;
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