"'Underneath this hazelin mote There's a Braggoty worm with a speckled throat, Nine double is he: Now from nine double to eight double, And from eight double to seven double, And from seven double to six double, And from six double to five double, And from five double to four double, And from four double to three double, And from three double to two double, And from two double to one double, And from one double to no double, No double hath he!'
"There, sir," said uncle Tony, "if David had known that charm he never would have wrote the verse in the Psalms about the adder that was so deaf that she would not hear the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely. I never knew that charm fail in all my life!" Tony added, after a pause--"Fail! of course, sometimes a body may fail, but then 'tis always from people's obstinacy and ignorance. I dare say, sir, you've heard the story of Farmer Colly's mare, how she bled herself to death; and they say he puts the blame on me. But what's the true case? His man came rapping at my door after I was in bed. I got up and opened the casement and looked out, and I asked what was amiss. 'O Tony,' says he, 'master's mare is blooding streams, and I be sent over to you to beg you to stop it.' 'Very well,' I said, 'I can do it just as well here as if I came down and opened the door: only just tell me the name of the beast, and I'll proceed.' 'Name,' says he, 'why, there's no name that I know by; we allus call her the black mare.' 'No name?' says I; 'then how ever can I charm her? Why, the name's the principal thing! Fools! never to give her a name to rule the charm by. Be off! be off! I can't save her.' So the poor old thing died in course." "And what may your charm be, Tony?" said I. "Just one verse in Ezekiel, sir, beginning, 'I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.' And so on. I say it only twice, with an outblow between each time. But the finest by-word that I know, sir, is for the prick of a thorn." And here it follows from my diary in the antique phraseology which Uncle Tony had received from his forefathers through descending generations:--
"Happy man that Christ was born! He was crownèd with a thorn: He was piercèd through the skin, For to let the poison in; But His five wounds, so they say, Closed before He passed away. In with healing, out with thorn: Happy man that Christ was born!"