XXIV.
Above the distich hung the trump:-
The hero got it with a jump,
And shouting gallantly, "Ya—hips!"
Applied the mouth-piece to his lips.
A blast he blew,-
Asunder flew
The portals with a brazen clang:
Windows were smashed,
And chains were clashed,
While a thousand gongs in discord rang.
A voice within, that seemed the note
Of some prodigious magpie's throat,
In ranc'rous tone cried, "Hallo, now!
I say, what means this tarnel row?"
And out came Catawampus, cross;
Behind him slunk Slockdollagos;
The Great Sea Serpent, trailing slim
His coils tremendous, after him.
XXV.
Six of the tallest men that e'er
Raised in old Kentucky were,
Each standing on the other's head,
Had scarce o'ertopped the monster dread;
The brim of his hat, so considerate,
Was half as big round as the King's Round Table;
His massive club was a maple's trunk:-
He might have made great Arthur "funk."
Arthur the First, or Arthur the Second,
As Arthur oe Wellington may be reckoned.
Slockdollagos was rather less,
But he was n't very short, I guess:—
He was fashionably drest,
In the style of a Wizard of the West.
XXVI.
"Clear off, now," was the Giant's cry;
"The oldest man in all Kentucky
My father whopp'd—my father, I:—
Absquotilate, and cut your lucky!"
Catawampus looked on every side,
But not a single soul espied;
To the right and left he grimly grinned,
Till the trunks of the very trees were skinned.
"Come out!" he bawled, "or I swear I 'll dash
Your brains into an immortal smash!
Don't raise my dander; if you do,
You won't much like me,—I tell you."
XXVII.
Jack laughed this bootless brag to hear,
And thus he sang in the Giant's ear:-
"Yankee doodle doodle doo,
Yankee doodle dandy;
Prepare your knavish deeds to rue,
For know, your fate is handy!"