O sought-for prize! Full many a day The old black punt has swung Beyond his stance, in twilight's grey, Or when the dawn was young; What hopes were ours, what heart-beats high Have thrilled us, when he rolled Up from the jade-green deep, a-nigh, Dull-gleaming as of gold!
Glide on, ye stately swans, with grace-- Ye ne'er again shall see His headlong dash among the dace Beneath the willow-tree; Ye little bleak, lift up your heads, Ye gudgeon, skip at score, The run between the lily beds Shall know its lord no more!
Yet, while th' exalted pulses stir, Regret takes hands with Pride, Regret for that most splendid spur-- The Wish Ungratified; With hammering heart that bulk I con, That spread of tail and fin, And sigh, like him of Macedon, With no more worlds to win.
Pull up the rypecks, can't you, Jim! It's roses all the way! But ne'er another fish like him For any other day! Room for the victor--lock, there, room!-- Who calls the gods to scan No halfling of the amber gloom, But that leviathan.
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Motto for golfer who has foozled his approach:--
"I will not stir, nor wince, nor speak a word, Nor look upon the iron angerly."
"There is," I said, "a guilty look about you. You are hanging round. At this time of the morning you have usually retreated to your fastnesses. Why has not the telephone claimed you? There is something on your mind."
"No," said the lady of the house airily; "I have a vacant mind."
"Where, then," I said, "is your loud laugh? I have not heard you shout 'Ha-ha,' or anything remotely resembling 'Ha-ha.' Something is weighing upon you."
"Yes at all," I said decisively. "You have something to confess."
"Confess!" she said scornfully. "What nonsense is this about confession? We are not early-Victorians."
"Yes, we are. I insist upon it. I shall be busy with my writing. You will come and kneel unperceived at my feet with an imploring look upon your tear-stained face. I shall give a sudden start----"
"And," she went on enthusiastically, "I shall stretch out my hands to you, and you will raise me tenderly from the floor, and I shall then explain----"
"That appearances were against you, but that Eugene is really your brother by a first marriage----"