It gave him such pleasure to tease him.

For old Peter was one who could not stand a joke,

And at one time young Pat got his head nearly broke

Through a comical trick which he played him.

For as slumb'ring one day by the water he sat,

Pat had fixed to his hook the stale corpse of a cat,

And then snug in the river's depth laid him.

Which the friar, when waking, had deemed a rich prize,

And his little mouth watered, and twinkled both eyes,

As in scales, in his mind's eye, he weighed him.