THE BLACK SHADOW.
We're near to the gloomy Guy Faux anniversary,
Nigh to the gorging of Lord Mayor's Day,
But though 'tis November, there's joy in the Nursery
Ruled by Nurse Gladstone out Westminster way.
The summer's long troubles are laid on the shelf
And "Nana" looks quite like enjoying herself.
That bothersome bantling, the big Irish baby,
Is tucked up in bed for a long forty winks.
(Though its shrill Banshee howl will be heard again, maybe,
From waking it, yet, even Nana G. shrinks.)
So now for a nice quiet time, if you please,
With the brace of most sweet-tempered bairns on her knees.
They're English—quite English, and easy to handle,
Won't raise horrid noises and anger the House.
They're pleasant to see and delightful to dandle,
And Nana opines that, with nursery nous,
They'll be got "nicely off"—if she makes no mistakes—
Before that Hibernian worry awakes.
"To market, to market, to buy a fat piggy!
(But O, not a poor Irish pig—in a poke!)"
So pipes Nana Gladstone so jocund and jiggy
She ekes out her Nursery lilt with a joke.
"We've done, for a season, with row-de-dow-dow,
And there's no 'Bogey Man,' dears, to bother us now!"
Nurses, we know, find the "Black Man" most handy
To frighten their charges to quiet at times;
But now 'tis all "Hush-a-bye, Babes!" "Handy-pandy!"
And such soothing carols and quieting rhymes,
No need for a "black ugly thing in the garden"
To quiet these babes, thinks old Nana from Hawarden!
Alas, and alas! Bogey Men are such rum 'uns,
And some Ugly Things are "too previous," or worse.
How oft the Black Shadow appears without summons,
And terrifies not the poor babes, but their Nurse!
Nana's not disturbed—yet—by the Irish babe's squall,
But—what means that black-boding shade on the wall?
The African Bogey! Inopportune, very!
It's really a nuisance, it does seem a shame
That just as Nurse G. is prepared to make merry
With two such sweet bantlings this Spook spoils the game!
Uganda! Mashonaland!! Nurse, I'm afraid
The Dark Continent casts o'er your babes a Black Shade!