Hound And Huntsman.

        Seeing yourselves are wise, ye smile
        On fools and folly for a while;
        But water wears the rocks, and sense
        Is wearied by impertinence.

        The wind was southerly, the sky
        Proclaimed that a good scent would lie -
        Forth from the kennel burst the hounds,
        As schoolboys sally out of bounds.
        They hailed the huntsman; he by name
        Greeted each dog, who thought it fame.
        See them obey command: when bade,
        They scattered thro' the copse and glade;
        They snuffed the scent upon the gale,
        And sought the remnant of a trail.

        Ringwood, a pup, on the alert,
        Was very young and very pert;
        He opened - from exuberant spirit -
        But old dogs heard the puppy in it;
        But when his note of "Full-cry" rose,
        The huntsman to the puppy goes, -
        Down falls the lash, - up rose the yelp,
        And murmured thus the puppy whelp:

        "Why lash me? Are you malcontent
        That I possess superior scent?"

        The huntsman answered: "Puppy slips
        Must be restrained by lash of whips;
        Puppies our scorn, not envy, raise -
        For envy is akin to praise.
        Had not that forward noisy tongue
        The patience of your elders wrung,
        You might have hunted with the pack;
        But now the whip assails your back:
        You must be taught to know your ground,
        And from a puppy grow a hound."