A ball of cotton!

“Zounds!” you exclaim’ “’Tis very odd!”

Not so, for cotton was his god;

His heart was in it. Do you start?

It formed the nucleus of his heart;

And from the fire if he could save it,

Fame, party, Heaven itself, he’d brave it!

His scull is soft—his head is sore;—

His brain is tainted to the core;

And on his brain-case you may trace