The vicar went to the valley,
A mountain on either side,
He built a small log cabin
To comfort his future bride,
The wind between the mountains
Brought echoes of far-off plains,
More often than not in the heart of the night,
Someone called his name.
The voice was sometimes muffled,
The voice, it sometimes screamed,
Whole sentences were chanted
Broke in on the vicar’s dreams,
The sounds were like a mirage
Half heard from a distant town,
Whenever the wind would begin to rise
He heard the strangest sounds.
A tap-tap-tap in the morning,
A tap-tap-tap at night,
As if someone was typing
Up on the mountain’s height,
The rhythm was pervasive
As it typed some ancient log,
He heard the words: ‘The quick brown fox
Jumps over the lazy dog.’
He ran from out of the cabin
And scanned the dusty plain,
His trusty dog was lying
Asleep on the track again,
When out from the brittle bushes
Aside of the narrow track,
A quick brown fox with a startled look,
Jumped over his old Ridge-back.
The vicar ran to the cabin
And fell on his knees in prayer,
What are you trying to tell me, lord,
That you’re really, really there?
I thought you were, but I wasn’t sure
But now I am – you beauty!
A voice intoned: ‘England expects
Each man to do his duty!’
The vicar jumped up off his knees
And praised the Lord again,
You’ve saved my very soul, my lord,
From Hell, and the pits of pain,
I’d thought that God was mine alone,
And not for everyone,
But now I find – and it blows my mind;
‘God is an Englishman!’
The wind was slowly rising,
It whined and whooped and roared,
It swooped along the valley,
Came in at the cabin door,
The vicar, sleeping restlessly
Heard everything, hale and hearty:
‘The time has come for all good men
To come to the aid of the party.’
The vicar’s not been seen of late
He’s busy, light and dark,
With hammer, nails, and canvas sails
He’s building himself an Ark,
While in a tiny township that
Lies hidden in mountain haze,
A typing teacher has just locked up,
And gone on his holidays.
David Lewis Paget
