Poem of the Week

An engineer, you would appreciate

The technique for yoking the mule-cart --

When they fasten a wicker basket on top

And take down from its peg a boxwood yoke

With knob and guide-hooks for holding the reins

And bring out the lashing-rope - fourteen feet long -

And settle the yoke on the well-polished pole

And slip the eye of the rope over a peg

And tie the rope three times around the knob

And secure it all the way down the pole

And twist if under a hook and thus yoke

Strong-footed draught-mules to the mule-cart.

(What's the function of the peg exactly?)