"Alas! for Baden-Powell's horse--
It's now in me," he said.--_Daily Express_.
HOW SAM HODGE WON THE VICTORIA CROSS.
BY WILLIAM JEFFREY PROWSE.
Just a simple little story I've a fancy for inditing;
It shows the funny quarters in which chivalry may lodge,
A story about Africa, and Englishmen, and fighting,
And an unromantic hero by the name of Samuel Hodge.
"Samuel Hodge!" The words in question never previously filled a
Conspicuous place in fiction or the Chronicles of Fame;
And the Blood and Culture critics, or the Rosa and Matilda
School of Novelists would shudder at the mention of the name.
It was up the Gambia River--and of _that_ unpleasant station
It is chiefly in connection with the fever that we hear!--
That my hero with the vulgar and prosaic appellation
Was a private--mind, a private!--and a sturdy pioneer.
It's a dreary kind of region, where the river mists arising
Roll slowly out to seaward, dropping poison in their track.
And accordingly few gentlemen will find the fact surprising
That a rather small proportion of our garrison comes back!
It is filthy, it is foetid, it is sordid, it is squalid;
If you tried it for a season, you would very soon repent;
But the British trader likes it, and he finds a reason solid
For the liking, in his profit at the rate of cent, per cent.
Pages:
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313