Tray

7"That sin-scathed brow" (quoth Bard the second),

8"That eye wide ope as tho' Fate beckoned

9My hero to some steep, beneath

10Which precipice smiled tempting Death ..."

11You too without your host have reckoned!

12"A beggar-child" (let's hear this third!)

13"Sat on a quay's edge: like a bird

14Sang to herself at careless play,

15And fell into the stream. 'Dismay!

16Help, you the standers-by!' None stirred.

17"Bystanders reason, think of wives

18And children ere they risk their lives.

19Over the balustrade has bounced

20A mere instinctive dog, and pounced

21Plumb on the prize. 'How well he dives!

22"'Up he comes with the child, see, tight

23In mouth, alive too, clutched from quite

24A depth of ten feet — twelve, I bet!

25Good dog! What, off again? There's yet

26Another child to save? All right!

27"'How strange we saw no other fall!

28It's instinct in the animal.

29Good dog! But he's a long while under:

30If he got drowned I should not wonder —

31Strong current, that against the wall!

32"'Here he comes, holds in mouth this time

33 — What may the thing be? Well, that's prime!

34Now, did you ever? Reason reigns

35In man alone, since all Tray's pains

36Have fished — the child's doll from the slime!'

37"And so, amid the laughter gay,

38Trotted my hero off, — old Tray, —

39Till somebody, prerogatived

40With reason, reasoned: 'Why he dived,

41His brain would show us, I should say.

42"'John, go and catch — or, if needs be,

43Purchase that animal for me!

44By vivisection, at expense

45Of half-an-hour and eighteen pence,

46How brain secretes dog's soul, we'll see!'"