Tray
Sing me a hero! Quench my thirstOf soul, ye bards!Quoth Bard the first:"Sir Olaf, the good knight, did donHis helm, and eke his habergeon ..."Sir Olaf and his bard----!
"That sin-scathed brow" (quoth Bard the second),"That eye wide ope as tho' Fate beckonedMy hero to some steep, beneathWhich precipice smiled tempting Death ..."You too without your host have reckoned!
"A beggar-child" (let's hear this third!)"Sat on a quay's edge: like a birdSang to herself at careless play,And fell into the stream. 'Dismay!Help, you the standers-by!' None stirred.
"Bystanders reason, think of wivesAnd children ere they risk their lives.Over the balustrade has bouncedA mere instinctive dog, and pouncedPlumb on the prize. 'How well he dives!
"'Up he comes with the child, see, tightIn mouth, alive too, clutched from quiteA depth of ten feet--twelve, I bet!Good dog! What, off again? There's yetAnother child to save? All right!
"'How strange we saw no other fall!It's instinct in the animal.Good dog! But he's a long while under:If he got drowned I should not wonder--Strong current, that against the wall!
"'Here he comes, holds in mouth this time--What may the thing be? Well, that's prime!Now, did you ever? Reason reignsIn man alone, since all Tray's painsHave fished--the child's doll from the slime!'
"And so, amid the laughter gay,Trotted my hero off,--old Tray,--Till somebody, prerogativedWith reason, reasoned: 'Why he dived,His brain would show us, I should say.
"'John, go and catch--or, if needs be,Purchase that animal for me!By vivisection, at expenseOf half-an-hour and eighteen pence,How brain secretes dog's soul, we'll see!'"
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