The fellowship of all good souls go with him!"
"One moment, sir," said the Lauréat; "we have not yet had Mr. Flumgarten's song."?
"My singing days, Cousin Bosky, are over," replied the ill-matched hubby of the "Hollyhock;"
"but, if it please the company, I will tell them a tale."
|Mr. Merripall, having gathered that the tale was of a ghostly character, would not suffer the candles to be snuffed, but requested his mutes to sprinkle over them a pinch or two of salt, that they might burn appropriately blue. He would have given his gold repeater for a death-watch; and when a coffin bounced out to him from the fire (howbeit it might be carrying coals to Newcastle!) he hailed it as a pleasant omen. Messrs. Hatband and Stiflegig, catching the jocular infection, brightened up amazingly.
Have lifted to Heaven their ancient spires.
The bells of the third are heard to toll--
What a creak is here! what a groan is there!
As the marching corps toil through the church door--
For the rich dead must be buried in lead;
Their pamper'd forms are too good for the worms!
They cheat in dust, as they cheated before.
Mumbles the parson, and mumbles the clerk,
Earth knocks the lid with a hollow sound!
Shall cease to roll--or that mourner's soul
To the glory of day, or the darkness of night!
By the ferryman row'd to the gulf of despair!
With hissing snakes twisted into a thong,
("I drove you on earth, I drive you below,
A furious crone whipp'd a spirit along!--
"Welcome! welcome!" she shriek'd with delight,--
Where the undying worm gnaw'd the marrowless bone!)
"For what I have given thy brethren and thee!
It has kept it up! for 'tis written in shame
On earth: and, behold! in that bright shining flame!
The ill-gotten purse has carried its curse
Have furrowed his cheeks and whitened his hair.
Betray'd in turn by the heart he betray'd,
He lies in the bed that his meanness has made.
Our gold! our gold! ten thousand times told!
Are those wild sounds the shrieks of the lost?
My Meeting-House walking-stick thrice in the week!
To yourself, good Jonathan? Certainly not!
Let those (the lucky ones! ) laugh that win;--
Keep your shop, and your shop will keep you!
Has his good round sum rolled into a plum?
A voice spake in thunder--"His time is not come!"