Explore "The Enthusiast" by Norman Gale on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The Major, till the paper comes, / Is by a hundred fidgets shaken; / Upon the tablecloth he drums, / Condemns the toast, pooh-poohs the bacon: / But when at last the boy arrives, / Not his to scan the market prices; / Though liner sinks or palace burns, / The Major lives by rule, and turns / To cricket first, and then the crisis.
Though getting grey and rather stiff, / The Major loves a long day's outing, / And gives a military sniff / When lads complain of lengthy scouting. / Each summer morn at break of day / From bed before the lark he tumbles, / And if the mercury be vile / There carries nearly half a mile / The Indian vigour of his grumbles.