Love-Songs of Childhood

<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0024" id="link2H_4_0024"></SPAN></p> <h2> THE RIDE TO BUMPVILLE </h2> <p>Play that my knee was a calico mare<br/> Saddled and bridled for Bumpville;<br/> Leap to the back of this steed, if you dare,<br/> And gallop away to Bumpville!<br/> I hope you'll be sure to sit fast in your seat,<br/> For this calico mare is prodigiously fleet,<br/> And many adventures you're likely to meet<br/> As you journey along to Bumpville.<br/> This calico mare both gallops and trots<br/> While whisking you off to Bumpville;<br/> She paces, she shies, and she stumbles, in spots,<br/> In the tortuous road to Bumpville;<br/> And sometimes this strangely mercurial steed<br/> Will suddenly stop and refuse to proceed,<br/> Which, all will admit, is vexatious indeed,<br/> When one is en route to Bumpville!<br/> She's scared of the cars when the engine goes "Toot!"<br/> Down by the crossing at Bumpville;<br/> You'd better look out for that treacherous brute<br/> Bearing you off to Bumpville!<br/> With a snort she rears up on her hindermost heels,<br/> And executes jigs and Virginia reels&mdash;<br/> Words fail to explain how embarrassed one feels<br/> Dancing so wildly to Bumpville!<br/> It's bumpytybump and it's jiggytyjog,<br/> Journeying on to Bumpville<br/> It's over the hilltop and down through the bog<br/> You ride on your way to Bumpville;<br/> It's rattletybang over boulder and stump,<br/> There are rivers to ford, there are fences to jump,<br/> And the corduroy road it goes bumpytybump,<br/> Mile after mile to bumpville!<br/> Perhaps you'll observe it's no easy thing<br/> Making the journey to Bumpville,<br/> So I think, on the whole, it were prudent to bring<br/> An end to this ride to Bumpville;<br/> For, though she has uttered no protest or plaint,<br/> The calico mare must be blowing and faint&mdash;<br/> What's more to the point, I'm blowed if I ain't!<br/> So play we have got to Bumpville!<br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />