Explore "The Babe, B. A" by E.F. Benson on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
For he was very fast, And he ran and he passed, And the sun and the moon and the stars Tried to catch him by the tail, But they one and all did fail, And Venus broke her nose 'gainst Mars. HOTCHPOTCH VERSES.
The Babe hurt his knee playing against the Old Leysians, and his language was Aristophanic and savoured strongly of faint praise. Also one of the Old Leysians had grossly insulted him during the course of the game. The Babe was careering about with the ball behind their touch-line, attempting to get a try straight behind the goal-posts, instead of being content with one a reasonable distance off, for he was fastidious in these little matters and liked to do things well, when he was caught up bodily by one of the opposing team and carried safely out into the field again. A roar of appreciative laughter, and shouts of "Good old Babe" went up from all the field, and the Babe's feelings were hurt. He had the satisfaction of dropping a goal a little later on, but he asked pathetically, "Could aught atone?"