_Houp-là!_ Oh, it's all very fine That there whip to keep twirling and cracking, But with such a trio as mine There's no very great fun in "bare-backing." Two of them, I'm sure, were enough To keep--in _this_ Circus--in tether. A third you must thrust in!--what stuff! How _am_ I to keep 'em together? "Land Purchase" I had well in hand, And "Tithes" made a pretty fair second; But t'other? I can't understand How JOKIM could so have misreckoned. Of all awkward 'osses to hold The worst is his pet, "Compensation," And if in the tan I ain't rolled, 'Twill be thanks to my fine equitation! _Must_ get him along? Oh, of course! It will not do to fail, now we've started. But how? I'm a chap of resource, And I fancy I'm not chicken-hearted, Yet some lookers-on shouts out "Go!" Whilst others ejaculate "Drop him!" And, SOLLY, I'm hanged if I know How safely to drive him _or_ stop him. I may get him round,--'twill take time,-- To drop him would now raise derision; I'm tired, and not quite in my prime, And of failure have somehow a vision. Of course, I will still do my best; I am always devoted to "Duty," But oh! I should so like a rest. _Houp-là_ then! Oh, come up, you beauty!! * * * * * IMPORTANT.--The Two Pins Club are going to have a race. Of course it will be "from point to point." * * * * * LE 'OCKEY STICK-BALLE FIGHT. _Contributed by Our Own "Sportings-Life" Man._ MON CHER MONSIEUR PUNCH, I KNOW what interest profound and gracious you have always manifested towards the glorious efforts of the heroic youth of our regenerated athletic France, for have I not read your notices amiable and scientific of _les_ "doings" of our onze at the _jeu de Cricquette_, and still later of the murderous combat of the veritable "struggle-for-lifers" in _le scrimmage_ of your terrible contest of "Kicke-balle"? But now the valiant youth of our public seminaries have advanced still one more step, and the afternoon of last Tuesday saw, in the leafy arcades of our Bois, a true "stick-balle" fight--in one word, a _parti_ of "Le 'Ockey," played with _vrais bâtons_, clubs long and terrible, with cruel hooked finish, to the eye of the beholder, and the dangerous white ball, hard as iron, heavy as lead, between a 'ome team and a "side" of strangers, that would have done credit to an "Oxfor-Cambridge" battle or a fight royal, in which _Les Roverres de Peckham_ were themselves engaged.