All a gwine into the ark.

And there was the elephant-ah, that g-r-e-a-t animal-ah of which Goldsmith describes in his Animated Nater-ah, which is as big as a house-ah, and his bones as big as a tree-ah, depending somewhat upon the size of the tree-ah; and there was Shem, and there was Ham, and there was Japhet-ah, a-l-l a-gwine into the show-room.

The auctioneer then in his labor began;

And called out aloud as he held up a man,

How much for a bachelor, who wants to buy?

In a twinkling each maiden responded, “I—I!”

In short, at a hugely extravagant price,

The bachelors all were sold off in a trice,

And forty old maidens—some younger, some older—

Each lugged an old bachelor home on her shoulder.