And then, while our hero lay moaning with pain,
And his father kept rubbing and fussing in vain,
The doctor continued, in furious strain,
"This accident—humph!
Cousin Gluck, on my word,
With a family team, sir,
Would not have occurred.
This thinking and plotting for self all the while,
And frisking about, sir, in bachelor style,
With no one to nurse you when hurt, sir, don't pay."
"Good doctor," moaned froggy,
"It isn't too late,
Even now she'd consent
To soften my fate.
Oh Eng! dear, run off for Miss Gung, right away."
VIII.
These words were his last. He never moved more,
But lay through the starlight, all fainting and sore
(And those weary night-watchers, how rasping their snore)!
In the morning they found him
Stretched out stiff and stark—
He had died all alone
In the cold and the dark.
The chord of existence had snapt, they averred,
In trying to utter one sweet little word.
And, as over his body his weeping sire hung,
'Twas plain to be seen,
From that mouth's very mien,
That the last mournful sound of his life had been—Gung!
Oh! gentlemen far, and gentlemen near,
And striplings fair, and children dear,
Be warned by the mournful tale, heigho!
Of the frog who wouldn't a-wooing go.
————————
THE STUBBORN BOOT.
Bother! was all John Clatterby said.
His breath came quick, and his cheek was red,
He flourished his elbows, and looked absurd,
While, over and over, his "Bother!" I heard.
Harder and harder the fellow worked,
Vainly and savagely still he jerked;
The boot, half on, would dangle and flap—
"Oh bother!" and then he broke the strap.
Redder than ever his hot cheek flamed;
Harder than ever he fumed and blamed;
He wriggled his heel, and tugged at the leather
Till knees and chin came bumping together.
"My boy!" said I, in a voice like a flute,
"Why not—ahem!—try the mate of that boot;
Or the other foot?"—"I'm a goose," laughed John,
As he stood, in a flash, with his two boots on.
In half the affairs
Of this busy life
(As that same day
I said to my wife),
Our troubles come
From trying to put
The left-hand shoe
On the right-hand foot,
Or vice versa
(Meaning, reverse, sir).
To try to force,
As quite of course,
Any wrong foot
In the right shoe,
Is the silliest thing
A man can do.