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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=350490" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Josephus Riley</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">The rum was rich and rare,<br>There were wagers in the air,<br>The atmosphere was rosy, and the tongues were<br>wagging free;<br>But one was in the revel<br>Whose occiput was level -<br>Plain Josephus Riley, from the North Countree.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The conversation's flow<br>Was not devoid of “blow,”<br>And neither was it wanting in the plain, colloquial “D.”<br>With a most ingenuous smile -<br>'This here is not my style,'<br>Said plain Josephus Riley, from the North Countree.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'And I wouldn't be averse<br>To emptying my purse,<br>And laying some small wager with the present<br>companee,<br>To cut the matter short -<br>Foot racing is my forte,'<br>Said plain Josephus Riley, from the North Countree.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“I think it's on the cards<br>That I can run three hundred yards<br>(The match to be decided where you gentlemen<br>agree)<br>Against your fleetest horse;<br>The race would prove a source<br>Of pleasure,' said Josephus, from the North Countree.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'To equalise the task,<br>This little start I ask -<br>The rider, ere he follows, must imbibe a cup of tea;<br>A simple breakfast-cup<br>He will have to swallow up.<br>That's me - Josephus Riley, from the North<br>Countree.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then a “knowing 'un” looked wise,<br>“Begged to apologise;<br>But might he ask what temp'rature the liquid was<br>to be!<br>Would it come from out the pot<br>Milkless, steaming, boiling-hot?”<br>'Oh, not at all,' said Riley, from the North<br>Countree.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Allow me to explain;<br>I do observe with pain,<br>This jocular reflection on my native honestee,<br>My bump of truth is huge,<br>I'd scorn a subterfuge' -<br>Said plain Josephus Riley, from the North Countree.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">“Before the parties start<br>I'll take the Judge apart<br>To prove, by tasting, whether I have tampered with<br>the tea;<br>And I beg to state again<br>Your suspicions give me pain,'<br>Said plain Josephus Riley, from the North Countree.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then they were all satisfied<br>That the match was 'boneefied,'<br>The bond was signed, and Riley went to 'preparate”<br>the tea;<br>But his slow, ambiguous smile<br>Would have seemed to token guile<br>In any man but Riley, from the North Countree.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He brought the fatal cup -<br>By its saucer covered up -<br>The Judge examined its contents with awful gravitee,<br>Then read the papers o'er,<br>But could not find a flaw:<br>'Wade in! Josephus Riley, from the North Countree.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then the “wagerer” just bowed,<br>And, passing through the crowd,<br>He handed up the beverage unto the “wageree;”<br>And off across the flat,<br>Springing gaily, pit-a-pat,<br>Went plain Josephus Riley, from the North Countree.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But behind him what a yell<br>Of execration fell<br>From lips that lent themselves to shapes of great<br>profanitee!<br>For the people of that town<br>Were done a lovely brown<br>By plain Josephus Riley, from the North Countree.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And here's the reason why:<br>The tea was simply DRY,<br>You might eat it, but to drink it was impossibilitee;<br>But, curious to state,<br>Men did not appreciate<br>This hum'rous innovation from the North Countree.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">You'll understand, of course,<br>That wager was a source<br>Of very little profit to the hapless “wageree,”<br>And, dating from that day,<br>I much regret to say,<br>Men look askance at Riley, from the North Countree.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Barcroft+Henry+Thomas+Boake">Barcroft Henry Thomas Boake</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=350490" data-title="Josephus Riley de Barcroft Henry Thomas Boake" data-description="The rum was rich and rare,
There were wagers in the air,
The atmosphere was rosy, and the tongues were
wagging free;
But one was in the revel
Whose occiput was level -
Plain Josephus Riley, from the North Countree.

The conversation's flow
Was not..."></div>
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