Sid Hamet’s Rod
by
Poor Hall, renown’d for comely hair,
Whose hands, perhaps, were not so fair,
Yet had a Jezebel as near;
Hall, of small scripture conversation,
Yet, howe’er Hungerford’s[1] quotation,
By some strange accident had got
The story of this garden-plot;–Wisely
foresaw he might have reason
To dread a modern bill of treason,
If Jezebel should please to want
His small addition to her grant:
Therefore resolved, in humble sort,
To begin first, and make his court;
And, seeing nothing else would do,
Gave a third part, to save the other two.
[Footnote 1: Probably John Hungerford, a member of the October Club. “Prose Works,” v, 209.–W. E. B.]