“Nor force Eton swells in quagmire to grope.”
“Bother you, don’t humbug and put me out.
“Old man, old man, if for aught thou wouldst hope,
Thy heart, purse, and gates thou must instantly ope.
Let me but—”
“Get Mother Carey to write it,” suggested his cousin John.
“No; she must know nothing about it,” said Bobus.
“She’d think it a jolly lark,” said Jock.
“When it’s over,” said Allen. “But it’s one of the things that the old ones are sure to stick at beforehand, if they are ever so rational and jolly.”
“‘Tis a horrid pity she is not a fellow,” sighed Johnny.
“And who’ll do the verses?” said Rob.
“Oh, any fool can do them,” returned Bobus. “The point is to bell the cat.”