Poems of Thomas Hood - 1 Author:Thomas Hood Volume: 1 General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1897 Original Publisher: Macmillan and co., limited Subjects: Humor / General Juvenile Nonfiction / Humor / General Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the Gener... more »al Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: MISS KILMANSEGG AND HER PRECIOUS LEG A GOLDEN LEGEND "What is here? Gold ! yellow, glittering, precious gold ? " Timon of Athens. To trace the Kilmansegg pedigree To the very root of the family tree Were a task as rash as ridiculous : Through antediluvian mists as thick As London fog such a line to pick Were enough, in truth, to puzzle old Nick, Not to name Sir Harris Nicolas. It wouldn't require much verbal strain To trace the Kill-man, perchance, to Cain ; ., But, waiving all such digressions, Suffice it, according to family lore, A Patriarch Kilmansegg lived of yore, Who was famed for his great possessions. Tradition said he feather'd his nest Through an Agricultural Interest In the Golden Age of Farming ; When golden eggs were laid by the geese, And Colchian sheep wore a golden fleece, And golden pippins -- the sterling kind Of Hesperus -- now so hard to find -- Made Horticulture quite charming ! A Lord of Land, on his own estate, He lived at a very lively rate, But his income would bear carousing; Such acres he had of pasture and heath, With herbage so rich from the ore beneath, The very ewe's and lambkin's teeth Were turn'd into gold by browsing. He gave, without any extra thrift, A flock of sheep for a birthday gift To each son of his loins, or daughter : And his debts -- if debts he had -- at will He liquidated by giving each bill A dip in Pactolian water. 'Twas said that even his pigs of lead, By crossi...« less