X

     It was a scene when man and maid,
     Abandoning all other trade,
     And careless of the call to meals,
     Went jumping at the woman’s heels. 
     By dozens they were counted soon,
     Without a sound to tell their tune.

     XI

     Along the roads they came, and crossed
     The fields, and o’er the hills were lost,
     And in the evening reappeared;
     Then short like hobbled horses reared,
     And down upon the grass they plumped: 
     Alone their Jane to glory jumped.

     XII

     At morn they rose, to see her spring
     All going as an engine thing;
     And lighter than the gossamer
     She led the bobbers following her,
     Past old acquaintances, and where
     They made the stranger stupid stare.

     XIII

     When turnips were a filling crop,
     In scorn they jumped a butcher’s shop: 
     Or, spite of threats to flog and souse,
     They jumped for shame a public-house: 
     And much their legs were seized with rage
     If passing by the vicarage.

     XIV

     The tightness of a hempen rope
     Their bodies got; but laundry soap
     Not handsomer can rub the skin
     For token of the washed within. 
     Occasionally coughers cast
     A leg aloft and coughed their last.

     XV

     The weaker maids and some old men,
     Requiring rafters for the pen
     On rainy nights, were those who fell. 
     The rest were quite a miracle,
     Refreshed as you may search all round
     On Club-feast days and cry, Not found!

     XVI

     For these poor innocents, that slept
     Against the sky, soft women wept: 
     For never did they any theft;
     ’Twas known when they their camping left,
     And jumped the cold out of their rags;
     In spirit rich as money-bags.

     XVII

     They jumped the question, jumped reply;
     And whether to insist, deny,
     Reprove, persuade, they jumped in ranks
     Or singly, straight the arms to flanks,
     And straight the legs, with just a knee
     For bending in a mild degree.

     XVIII

     The villagers might call them mad;
     An endless holiday they had,
     Of pleasure in a serious work: 
     They taught by leaps where perils lurk,
     And with the lambkins practised sports
     For ’scaping Satan’s pounds and quarts.

     XIX

     It really seemed on certain days,
     When they bobbed up their Lord to praise,
     And bobbing up they caught the glance
     Of light, our secret is to dance,
     And hold the tongue from hindering peace;
     To dance out preacher and police.

     XX