It is the Police Commissioners, <br />All on a winter's day; <br />And they to prove the town water <br />Have set themselves away. <br /> <br />They went to the north, they went to the south, <br />And into the west went they, <br />Till they found a civil, civil engineer, <br />And unto him did say: <br /> <br />'Now tell to us, thou civil engineer, <br />If this be fit to drink.' <br />And they showed him a cup of the town water, <br />Which was as black as ink. <br /> <br />He took three sips of the town water, <br />And black in the face was he; <br />And they turned them back and fled away, <br />Amazed that this should be. <br /> <br />And he has written a broad letter <br />And sealed it with a ring, <br />And the letter saith that the town water <br />Is not a goodly thing. <br /> <br />And they have met, and the Bailies all, <br />And eke the Councillors, <br />And they have ta'en the broad letter <br />And read it within the doors. <br /> <br />And there has fallen a great quarrel, <br />And a striving within the doors, <br />And quarrelsome words have the Bailies said, <br />And eke the Councillors. <br /> <br />And one saith, 'We will have other water,' <br />And another saith, 'But nay;' <br />And none may tell what the end shall be, <br />Alack and well-a-day! <br /> <br />I love the inoffensive frog, <br />'A little child, a limber elf,' <br />With health and spirits all agog, <br />He does the long jump in a bog <br />Or teaches men to swim and dive. <br />If he should be cut up alive, <br />Should I not be cut up myself? <br /> <br />So I intend to be straightway <br />An Anti-Vivisectionist; <br />I'll read Miss Cobbe five hours a day <br />And watch the little frogs at play, <br />With no desire to see their hearts <br />At work, or other inward parts, <br />If other inward parts exist.<br /><br />Robert Fuller Murray<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-ballad-of-the-town-water/
