Explore "Another Ride from Ghent to Aix" by James Whitcomb Riley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
We sprang for the side-holts -- my gripsack and I -- / It dangled -- I dangled -- we both dangled by. / "Good speed! " cried mine host, as we landed at last -- / "Speed? " chuckled the watch we went lumbering past; / Behind shut the switch, and out through the rear door / I glared while we waited a half hour more.
I had missed the express that went thundering down / Ten minutes before to my next lecture town, / And my only hope left was to catch this "wild freight," / Which the landlord remarked was "most luckily late -- / But the twenty miles distance was easily done, / If they run half as fast as they usually run! "