May she be foremost seen,
And the Goddess at our Country’s gates
For aye and ever be our queen.”
CHAPTER XXXV.
Liberty, Lots of It.—But Victuals are Unfortunately in Inverse Proportion.—Mutual Congratulation of the Fleas on the Very Satisfactory State of Things.— A Point Overlooked; Which Proves that the Best Laid Schemes of Mice and Fleas Gang Aft Aglee.—Illegal Hunger.—Almighty Tommy.
THE Liberty Goddess consecrating was a perfect success; the dogs were delighted and happy, and as they staggered back, hungry and weary, to the holes and hiding places they called their homes, a sweet peace and content was upon them. Why they were content and peaceful they did not know and could not tell; but in a dazed and hypnotic way, they felt that though the fleas upon them and round about them were eating them up; though their poor bones were protruding through their skins, and disease, and anæmia were becoming universal, they had an intangible property they called a Free Country, a Glorious Flag, and a wonderful Statue that in some mysterious way made them a Great Nation.
And the Bamboozling Committee were delighted even unto delirium, and they reported unto the Board of Public Safety that God had prospered their efforts beyond their most sanguine expectations, and that the dogs were, with perhaps a few exceptions—whom they hoped the police would diligently make note of, with a view to their early, total and complete extirpation and extinction—now reduced to a very satisfactory state of drivelling idiocy, and law abiding patriotism, and that they could be led by the nose whithersoever the Board might desire; that the latest acquisition to their Committee—the Great Many Headed Daily Press, could not be too highly spoken of for its wonderful efficiency; in fact it had—though the latest—proved itself the greatest acquisition to their bamboozling forces; that in fact it was more than a whole Bamboozling Committee in itself, and could devise more and slicker dog bamboozlements in five minutes than the whole Committee could in five months; that its terms were very simple, being only that they it served should be the highest bidders, which of course meant that the dogs could never be “in it” at bidding with the fleas, and therefore it would be at the bidding of the fleas forever and forever, Amen. And finally they wished to accord the Crown and the Palm to the Great Many Headed Daily Press.