Gradual a moving head appeared,
And Eagle firemen knew
’Twas Joseph Muggins, name revered,
The foreman of their crew.
Loud shouted all in signs of woe,
‘A Muggins to the rescue, ho!’
And poured the hissing tide.
Thackeray was especially happy and especially funny in his Irish burlesques. Larry O’Toole, a parody of the rollicking Irish bacchanalian songs with which Charles Lever made us so familiar, admirably hits the medium between close imitation and high burlesque. There is a dash in it both of Larry O’Hale and the Widow Malone. We quote two of the three verses:
You’ve all heard of Larry O’Toole,
Of the beautiful town of Drumgoole.