I WAS to the windward walking,

Of love and marriage talking,

When, zephyr like a feather,

Took my topper on its wing

And I hollo'd! and I hollo'd!

While another fellow followed,

It stopped, they came together,

With his foot upon the thing!

Æsthetic oaths I uttered,

A threat for damage muttered,

And my popping of the question,

Had also lifted wing.

She's wedded to another,

And now I cannot smother,

My blessing on that zephyr,

And that fugitive top hat,

For had I not been checked,

My happiness was wrecked,

I wouldn't be so rosy

To-day, and round and fat.