Pages 30--33, "Gaily the Troubadour," by Arthur Guiterman.
Published by E. P. Dutton & Co., 1936.
KID LOCHINVAR
(Sir Walter Scott Does a Western)
Arthur Guiterman
Young Lochinvar has ridden from the occident - and how boys!
His bronco was esteemed the best by all the other cowboys.
He traveled unsupported by a pal or coadjutor
And packed no gun excepting the conventional six-shooter.
So faithful in affection and so dangerous in fighting,
What knight, compared with Lochinvar, was ever worth the knighting!
He tarried not for boulder nor for any such deterrent;
The River Esk obtruded and he swam the raging current;
But ere he reached the rancho where the Netherbys were rallied,
His sweetheart had consented that their troth be held invalid;
A lout who lagged in courting and in war was far from splendid
Was wedding lovely Ellen, Mr. Lochinvar's intended.
Young Lochinvar cavorted through the ranch-house, gay and hearty,
Among the friends and relatives assembled for the party.
Then Ellen's male progenitor was overheard to utter
The challenge that the bridegroom was too cowardly to stutter:
"Say, come you here for fighting, which is plainly suicidal,
Or come you here in courtesy to caper at our bridal?"
"I asked you for your daughter, but you answered, 'No indeedy.'
Love rises like a freshet, but its ebb is quite as speedy;
I merely beg a minute with Miss Ellen, no one else, sir,
To dance a single number and to sip a glass of seltzer.
There's heaps of girls in Scotland more than equally good-looking
Who'd say, 'You bet, young Lochinvar, I will! - and do the cooking!'"
The lady kissed the goblet and she did it mighty sweetly;
The gallant raised it, drained it, then he smashed the glass completely.
Her blush was brightly rosy and her sigh was deeply soulful,
Her smile was soft and tender though her eye was damp and doleful.
So ardent was their handclasp that no mother's frown could break it.
Said Lochinvar, "Miss Netherby, this dance is mine, I take it?"
His bearing was so stately and her face was so enchanting,
They dazzled all beholders with their graceful gallivanting.
Her mother quavered, "Drat it!" and her father growled, "Doggonit!"
The bridegroom swung his Stetson with the ostrich feathers on it,
While all the bridesmaids whispered - Mary, Sadie, Rose and Carrie--
"Young Lochinvar's the fellow whom our cousin ought to marry!"
KID LOCHINVAR
He squoze her hand a little, in her ear he whispered, "Steady!"
Because they'd reached the doorway where his noble steed stood ready.
Then swinging to the croup the gentle lady of his wooing,
He lightly leaped in front of her - a stunt that takes some doing.
"We're off!" exclaimed young Lochinvar, "and let 'em try to find us
They'll do some fancy riding if they smell the dust behind us!"
His tactics left the Netherbys extremely hot and flurried;
The Fosters rode, the Fenwicks ran, the Graemes and Musgraves hurried;
They raced and chased on Canobie, they galloped through the heather,
But lovely Ellen Netherby had vanished altogether.
In love so warm and constant, so redoubtable in battle,
A better man than Lochinvar has never herded cattle!
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