| |
| FRIENDS, push ’round the bottle, and let us be drinking, | |
| While Washington up in his mountains is slinking. | |
| Good faith, if he’s wise he’ll not leave them behind him, | |
| For he knows he’s safe nowhere where Britons can find him. | |
| When he and Fayette talk of taking this city, | 5 |
| Their vaunting moves only our mirth and our pity. | |
| |
| But though near our lines they’re too cautious to tarry, | |
| What courage they shew when a hen-roost they harry! | |
| Who can wonder that Poultry and Oxen and Swine | |
| Seek shelter in York from such Valour divine; | 10 |
| While Washington’s jaws and the Frenchman’s are aching | |
| The spoil they have lost to be boiling and baking. | |
| |
| Let Clinton and Arnold bring both to subjection, | |
| And send us more geese here to seek our Protection. | |
| Their flesh and their feathers shall meet a kind greeting: | 15 |
| A fat Rebel Turkey is excellent eating: | |
| A Lamb fat as butter, and white as a Chicken— | |
| Those sorts of tame Rebels are excellent picking. | |
| |
| Today a wild Rebel has smoaked on the Table: | |
| You’ve cut him and slic’d him as long as you’re able. | 20 |
| He bounded like Congo, and bade you defiance: | |
| And plac’d on his running his greatest reliance. | |
| But Fate overtook him and brought him before ye, | |
| To shew how Rebellion will wind up her story. | |
| |
| Then cheer up, my lads, if the Prospect grows rougher, | 25 |
| Remember from whence, and for whom ’tis ye suffer: | |
| From men whom mild Laws, and too happy condition, | |
| Have puffed up with Pride and inflamed with sedition. | |
| For George, whose reluctance to punish Offenders | |
| Has strengthened the hands of these upstart Pretenders. | 30 |
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