"Then, we'll larn you. And now you repeat after me."
"'Poll put her arms a-kimbo.' Sing--come, out with it." And the poker was again advanced.
"O God!" cried Vanslyperken.
"Sing, or by Heavens I'll shorten your nose! Sing, I say," repeated the woman, advancing the poker so as actually to singe the skin.
"Take it away, and I will," cried Vanslyperken, breathless.
"Well then, 'Poll put her arms a-kimbo.'"
"'Poll put her arms a-kimbo,'" repeated Vanslyperken.
"That's saying, not singing," cried the woman. "Now again. 'At the admiral's house looked she.'"
"'At the admiral's house looked she,'" replied Vanslyperken, in a whining tone.
Thus, with the poker staring him in the face, was Vanslyperken made to repeat the very song for singing which he would have flogged Jemmy Ducks. There was, however, a desperate attempt to avoid the last stanza.