"You must follow me, follow me, follow, I say,
Do as I tell you, and come this way."
And the song-singing, sing-songing forest brook
Leapt from its bed and after him took;
And the dead leaves rustled, yellow and wan,
As over their beds the water ran.
He called every bird that sat on a bough;
He called every creature with poop and prow—
I mean, with two ends, that is, nose and tail:
With legs or without, they followed full sail;
Squirrels that carried their tails like a sack,
Each his own on his little brown humpy back;
Snails that drew their own caravans,
Poking out their own eyes on the point of a lance,
And houseless slugs, white, black, and red—
Snails too lazy to build a shed;
And butterflies, flutterbys, weasels, and larks,
And owls, and shrew-mice, and harkydarks,
Cockchafers, henchafers, cockioli-birds,
Cockroaches, henroaches, cuckoos in herds;