Than a too-long-opened oyster,

Save when at noon his paunch grew mutinous 50

For a plate of turtle green and glutinous),

‘Only a scraping of shoes on the mat?

Anything like the sound of a rat

Makes my heart go pit-a-pat!’

‘Come in!’—the Mayor cried, looking bigger: 55

And in did come the strangest figure.

His queer long coat from heel to head

Was half of yellow and half of red;