Page:A Selection of Original Songs, Scraps, Etc., by Ned Farmer (3rd ed.).djvu/124

 

The matter at length grew decidedly serious,
It frightened Mark Mobbs till he went quite delirious,
Though some people say, and a many folks think.
That it was not so much the alarm as the drink!
But the bravest and best
Who by daylight would jest,
After dark were as timid and alarmed as the rest.

And so it became quite the country's talk,
For no end of people had seen the ghost walk;
There were Rogers and Martin, Bill Gibbs and George Gore,
Besides Philip Parslow, who'd seen it before!
So the villagers met
To see how they might get
Out of what hurt them worse than the National Debt.

Now whoever knows Nettleford knows the "Three Crowns,"
Nearly opposite Frampton's, and next door to Brown's;
And just round the comer, three doors from the pump,
Lives the pride of old Nettleford, Anthony Crump;
In stature but small,
But that's nothing at all,
For the greatest hearts often to little folks fall.

The meeting was crowded, and Anthony there;
Bob Belthard, the blacksmith, was called to the chair,
Who took it, and stated for why they'd assembled.
At which more than one in the company trembled;
Says Belthard, says he,
"If I might make so free,
I consider all ghosts as mere fiddle-de-dee."