Here’s Luck A Toast at a Hunt Club Dinner

It chanced one day I watched a steeplechase,
And one horse singled out and led them all
Across the fences at a rattling pace,
Until he hit a fence and took a fall
His rider laughed and muttered with a smile –
“Well, anyhow, I led ‘em for a while.”

And this is the text for my theme tonight –
A moral that the wisest men have sung:
Out life is very short – and swift the flight
Of time – so, comrades, go it while young.
And when old age comes on you’ll find it good
To think you made the running while you could.

There’s nothing now too solid or too hight
For some of you to take and chance a spill;
But we must funk the fences bye and bye,
When limbs grow stiff and hands have lost their skill.
In wintry age we’ll seek the hearthstone’s blaze;
So let us make the most of youth’s bright days.

So now, my friends, good luck and may you keep
Stout hearts and true and honest kindly mirth,
When drawing nearer to the last great leap
That lands us on the other side of earth,
Where many a gallant horseman and brave steed
Has gone before to give us all a lead.