Matin Bells and Scarlet and Gold :: :: University of Virginia Library

Tough is careful
And prayerful
When danger looms out,
And the man in the street may be wanted at last,
With the bluecoats about
And a shadowy past;
Then he brushes his hat and attends to devotions,
While torn in his breast by distracting emotions;
He watches the door,
And a traitorous thrill
If a mouse only patters or squeaks on the floor
Makes his heart for a moment with terror stand still.

Tough in highways
And byways
Is certainly seen,
But prefers the more quiet and sheltery spot
Where the dimness may screen
And observers are not;
Then his head is set off at a different angle,
He feels as a Briton his duty to wrangle
And gossip and drink
With his comrades, and those
Who are ready at all indiscretions to wink
And will not raise the devil they cannot compose.

Tough has idling
And sidling
Approaches and ways,
And he never goes straight if he can but go round;
He is restless, and stays
A brief time in one ground;
If you seek him, don't dream he will keep for your orders
The place he just trod or a mile from its borders;

497

He leads, as I know,
A strange vanishing life,
And he studies the winds and the warnings that blow,
While he plunders at large and with men is at strife.

Tough is meagre
And eager
Of features and form,
With a straw in his mouth which he mumbles for bread,
While he never looks warm
And he hardly seems fed;
Like his own London fog he for ever is shifting,
With no proper will and with circumstance drifting
From trouble to grief,
With no effort to stop,
As an outcast and sworn irrepressible thief,
To the gallows at last and the terrible Drop.