And when the multitude of the dogs saw the multitude of the fleas fall prostrate to Honest Labor, and heard the shout of the great Ascription, they were astounded and delighted; and they said to one another that surely the fleas were their dearest friends; that surely they could have no wealth comparable to a Country and a Flag, and that surely in a land where Statistics and great Averages abounded on all sides, and where great crops of them could be reaped at any time, and where Honest Labor was held in such reverence as to be crowned King, it was sinful, it was positively wicked—to imagine for a moment that they were hungry, that Hunger was a Delusion and Unpatriotism, that every truly loyal Canisvillian was bound in duty to the Flag to deny the existence of and repudiate.
And their delirious joy did make them deaf to the rumblings of their empty bellies.
And all the multitude of the fleas arose, and, led by the Bamboozling Committee, formed and marched in Solemn Procession around and around King Honest Labor—whose head by this time was grown so big that it threatened to burst its crown.
Oh, they were a goodly crowd of infinitely varied hues and colors, and antagonistic opinions of each other, all blended together that day in one grand harmony of purpose and feeling. Low Pressurists, Medium Pressurists, High Pressurists, Nighuntos, Faraways, Petty Squabblers, Grand Squabblers, Eminent Fleas, Wealthy Fleas, Monstrous Fleas, all were Dog Worshippers then, and the most humble and obedient servants and subjects of His Grievously Hungry but Supernal Majesty, King Honest Labor; and as they marched past him each swung a censer of thickly fuming and heavily perfumed Flattery under his royal nose; and as they marched and swung, they sang:
“In politics always
At loggerheads we;
But we’re all of us one,
In our worship of thee,
Honest Labor.”
And they shouted “God save the King!” and all the dogs to the waving of the pretty cloths and a crash of the wind, bang and thump instruments, cried “Amen.” And they swung the censers, and cried “Long Live the King!” and all the dogs answered “Amen,” and they prostrated themselves and cried, “All hail the King;” and all the dogs cried, “All hail!”