The ringing, hanging hen-roost thief-we have no use for him; <br />When they tear him up and eat him not a single eye grows dim; <br />But when a straight-necked traveller goes gallantly away <br />We grieve not if we lose him, for he'll run some other day. <br />The loafing, skirting, loud-mouthed hound that hangs about your horse <br />The while his bolder comrades gather thorn-wounds in the gorse- <br />We care not if he stops a kick or ties himself in wire, <br />The leader running straight and true's the hound of our desire. <br />Give me the fox that holds his point though fools and fate combine, <br />Give me the hound that follows him with nose upon the line, <br />The horse that never turns his head at fence or five- barred gate, <br />The man who has the needful nerve to cross a country straight! <br />And in the larger field of life let skirters stand aside, <br />Make way for those who want to work and those who dare to ride! <br />The only one who's worth a place to risk a fall with fate <br />Is he who steels his gallant heart and rides his country straight.<br /><br />William Henry Ogilvie<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-straight-goer/
