Poem by Norman Rowland Gale

A Tomboy

    That long-legged darling, Alice James,
      Plays cricket with the Johnson boys;
    A dozen engines could not make
      So shrill a noise.

    She's only twelve, and so, unfrocked
      Beyond her sometimes shameless knee;
    And never maiden longed so much
      A boy to be.

    She puts on gloves and pads to bat,
      And makes young Johnson bowl her slows.
    Good heavens! How she pulled that ball!
      And how she goes!

    She's tumbled yards outside the crease,
      And is indisputably out.
    Another innings? Ah, how strong
      That cherry pout!

    She keeps on batting all the time,
      And hammers Rupert Johnson's lobs;
    She also thumps Emilius's,
      And also Bob's!

    So, riding roughshod over rules,
      This long-legged Darling has her will;
    And when she's twenty, I expect
      She will do still.

1. Up at Lords
2. The Church Cricketant
3. On the Spot
4. A Boundary
5. Five Years After

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