Classic Poem

AN ALLEGORY .

Old Hughie one evening was on his way home,
 And as he was crossing the heather,
He happened to think how the Pope and the Devil
 Are both in a league together.

The moon was yet under the hill, and the road
 Was narrow, and dark was the night,
When just as he drew near his own cottage door,
 He met with a terrible fright.

A figure he saw, with two horns on his head,
 And his tail was an emblem of evil,
He was all over black from the snout to the rump:
 “Ah!” says Hugh, “It's the Pope, or the Devil!”

Now the Pope, you must know, is a desperate foe,
 And the Devil's a dragon omnivorous;
So he down on the spot, and he cried: “From the Pope
 And the Devil, Good Lord, deliver us!”

Then loud to his next neighbor Harry he called,
 As if fear with new courage had manned him:
“The De'il's on the road, and he'll soon be here,
 If we don't go out to withstand him!”

Now Harry, thus startled just out of a nap,
 He swallowed the tale to a letter;
Though, being a body “of havins and sense,”
 'Tis a pity he didn't know better.

Hand-in-hand, out they sallied, and cautiously both
 Reconnoitred the spectre again;
But there were the fierce-looking horns, and the tail
 They could see in the starlight plain.

He stood in the way, with a face as huge
 And as ugly as giant or ogress;
Like Apollyon he looked, as he straddles the road
 In the wood-cuts of Pilgrim's Progress .

Then off to the Squire they both of them ran,
 And shouted with voices of thunder:
“May it please your Honor to get out of bed,
 For the Devil's just out over yonder!”

Then up the Squire arose from bed,
 And out the Squire did ride,
With Sammy, and Benny, and Willy, and Joe,
 And one or two more beside.

And soon the dim, dark-looking figure they saw;
 They halted, and ere they drew nigh,
Both Hughie and Harry they questioned it hard,—
 But they got not a word in reply.

Sam carried the lantern; they came to the spot;
 It moved its broad lips in the light;
And when they all put on their spectacles, what
 Do you think was the cause of the fright?

Cries Sam, with sarcastical grin, “It's a cow ,
 Just chewing the cud in her slumber;
And, Hugh, if you have not been making a bull ,
 You've made a deuce of a blunder! ”

The Squire looked glum, though he smiled at the pun;
 Quoth he, “This joke may amuse you all;
But as we all know that a cow is a cow,
 We'll proceed to our beds just as usual.”

Then some they said one thing, and some they said more,
 An insult, some said, was intended;
And Benjamin swore no black cow before
 Had e'er been so misrepresented.

Then sensitive Joe began wiping his eyes,—
 Of sleep 't was a deeply-felt outlay;
While Willy looked wiser than ever he was ,
 And joined the majority stoutly.

Poor Harry kept still, for he felt like a fool:
 But, born with a genius commanding,
Bold Hughie maintained they were all in the wrong,
 And the cow was the De'il notwithstanding!

“For both,” as he said, “have got horns on their head,
 And both have got tails behind them;
And if cloven hoofs arn't infallible proofs ,
 Pray where the De'il will you find them?”

The story got wind; and the boys of the town,—
 Though I own it was not very civil,—
When they saw him, all ran, shouting “There goes the man
 Wot took a black cow for the Devil!”