Ampler provision for such crying want
Than Mother Eve's traditional fig-leaf scant.
And so I cannot surely tell which way
The lady lay upon the grassy ground;
Like Knickerbocker's hero, I can't say
She there a providential cushion found;
Yet so much I may confidently tell,—
"Butter-side up" undoubtedly she fell.
Now had she been a city lady fine,
And worn a "dress-improver," i. e., "bustle,"
Which gives to scrawny torsos Hogarth's line
Of beauty, she might well have stood the tussle;
But there was naught to break the cruel blow,
So she went down like wall of Jericho.
This ram had often tried to butt before—
Perhaps behind—the reporter does not state;
And witnesses their testimony bore
His owner had a knowledge intimate
Of this sad vice, yet did not tether him..
But left him loose to imperil life and limb.
Her injuries the report does not disclose,
Whether in chief of body or of mind,
But twelve good men unanimously rose,
And fifteen hundred dollars did they find;
And this means much, for in Vermont a dollar
Looks big as cart-wheel or a horse's collar.
But few ram-cases scattered up and down
Lie in the books; I know there's one in Maine,
About a ram on poor-farm of the town,
For which the liability was plain;
But there is far less interest in these
Than in this case of Oakes and Aries.
