THE MAGICAL PICTURE
Glinting on the roadway
A broken mirror lay:
Then what did the child say
Who found it there?
He cried there was a goblin
Looking out as he looked in—
Wild eyes and speckled skin,
Black, bristling hair!
He brought it to his father
Who being a simple sailor
Swore, "This is a true wonder,
Deny it who can!
Plain enough to me, for one,
It's a portrait aptly done
Of Admiral, the great Lord Nelson
When a young man."
The sailor's wife perceiving
Her husband had some pretty thing
At which he was peering,
Seized it from his hand.
Then tears started and ran free,
"Jack, you have deceived me,
I love you no more," said she,
"So understand!"
"But, Mary," says the sailor,
"This is a famous treasure,
Admiral Nelson's picture
Taken in youth."
"Viper and fox," she cries,
"To trick me with such lies,
Who is this wench with the bold eyes?
Tell the full truth!"
Up rides the parish priest
Mounted on a fat beast.
Grief and anger have not ceased
Between those two;
Little Tom still weeps for fear;
He has seen Hobgoblin, near,
Great white teeth and foul leer
That pierced him through.
Now the old priest lifts his glove
Bidding all for God's love
To stand and not to move,
Lest blood be shed.
"O, O!" cries the urchin,
"I saw the devil grin,
He glared out, as I looked in;
A true death's head!"
Mary weeps, "Ah, Father,
My Jack loves another!
On some voyage he courted her
In a land afar."
This, with cursing, Jack denies:—
"Father, use your own eyes:
It is Lord Nelson in disguise
As a young tar."
When the priest took the glass,
Fresh marvels came to pass
"A saint of glory, by the Mass!
"Where got you this?"
He signed him with the good Sign,
Be sure the relic was divine,
He would fix it in a shrine
For pilgrims to kiss.
There the chapel folk who come
(Honest, some, and lewd, some),
See the saint's eyes and are dumb,
Kneeling on the flags.
Some see the Doubter Thomas,
And some Nathaniel in the glass,
And others whom but old Saint Judas
With his money bags?