Read "The Whipper-In" by Thomas Hardy online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
MY father was the whipper-in,- / Is still-if I'm not misled? / And now I see, where the hedge is thin, / A little spot of red; / Surely it is my father / Going to the kennel-shed!
"I cursed and fought my father-aye, / And sailed to a foreign land; / And feeling sorry, I'm back, to stay, / Please God, as his helping hand. / Surely it is my father / Near where the kennels stand?"
"-True. Whipper-in he used to be / For twenty years or more; / And you did go away to sea / As youths have done before. / Yes, oddly enough that red there / Is the very coat he wore.
"But he-he's dead; was thrown somehow, / And gave his back a crick, / And though that is his coat, 'tis now / The scarecrow of a rick; / You'll see when you get nearer- / 'Tis spread out on a stick.
"You see, when all had settled down / Your mother's things were sold, / And she went back to her own town, / And the coat, ate out with mould, / Is now used by the farmer / For scaring, as 'tis old. "