And I sez, with a ketch in my voice, “You shall!” and I whipped the sheet off the board,
I stuck up the pair o’ trestles, and fastened the tightrope cord;
Then I propped the Gineral up in a place from which he could see the ’ole,
And I set the tabbies a-sparring, and the mice a-climbing the pole.
(Build up the whole scene gradually; the dreary neighbourhood, the total absence of bystanders, the lurid threatening sky, and the humble entertainment proceeding in the foreground.)
I put my company through their tricks—and they made my hold eyes dim,
For they never performed for no orjence like they did last night for him!
Them tabbies sparred with a science you’d ’ardly expect from sich,
And the mouse (what usually boggles) fetched flags with never no ’itch!
Aye, we worked the Show in that lonely place to the sound o’ the mutterin’ storm,