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Hard-riding Dick.
I
From the cradle his name has been “Hard-riding Dick,”Since the time when cock-horse he bestraddled a stick;
136
He kick'd the old donkey along the green lane.
II
Dick, wasting no time o'er the classical page,Spent his youth in the stable without any wage;
The life of poor Dick, when he enter'd his teens,
Was to sleep in the hay-loft and breakfast on beans.
III
Promoted at length, Dick's adventures began:—A stripling on foot, but when mounted a man;
Capp'd, booted, and spurr'd, his young soul was on fire,
The day he was dubb'd “Second Whip” to the Squire.
IV
See, how Dick, like a dart, shoots a-head of the pack!How he stops, turns, and twists, rates, and rattles them back!
The laggard exciting, controlling the rash,
He can comb down a hair with the point of his lash.
V
O! show me that country which Dick cannot cross—Be it open or wood, be it upland or moss,
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By day-light or star-light, or no light at all!
VI
Like a swallow can Dick o'er the water-flood skim,And Dick, like a duck, in the saddle can swim;
Up the steep mountain-side like a cat he can crawl,
He can squeeze like a mouse through a hole in the wall!
VII
He can tame the wild young one, inspirit the old,The restive, the runaway, handle and hold;
Sharp steel or soft-solder, which e'er does the trick,
It makes little matter to Hard-riding Dick.
VIII
Bid the chief from the Desert bring hither his mare,To ride o'er the plain against Dick if he dare;
Bring Cossack or Mexican, Spaniard or Gaul,
There's a Dick in our village will ride round them all!
IX
A whip is Dick's sceptre, a saddle Dick's throne,And a horse is the kingdom he rules as his own;
While grasping ambition encircles the earth,
The dominions of Dick are enclosed in a girth.
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X
Three ribs hath he broken, two legs, and one arm,But there hangs, it is said, round his neck a life-charm;
Still long odds are offer'd that Dick, when he drops,
Will die, as he lived, in his breeches and tops.
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