THAT FOOT-BALL

What was it made me cricket snub, And force my seven sons to sub- sidize a local "Rugby" Club? That Foot-ball! Yet, what first drew from me a sigh, When Tom, my eldest, missed a "try," But got instead a broken thigh? That Foot-ball! What in my second, stalwart Jack, Caused some inside machine to crack, And kept him ten months on his back—? That Foot-ball! What brought my third, unhappy Ted, To fade and sink, and keep his bed, And finally go off his head?— That Foot-ball! My fourth and fifth, poor John and Jim, What made the sight of one so dim? What made the other lack a limb? That Foot-ball! Then Frank, my sixth, who cannot touch The ground unaided by a crutch, Alas! of what had he too much? That Foot-ball! The seventh ends the mournful line, Poor Stephen with his fractured spine, A debt owe these good sons of mine, That Foot-ball! And as we pass the street-boys cry, "Look at them cripples!" I but sigh, "You're right, my friends. But would you fly A lot like ours; oh, do not try That Foot-ball!"