And utter agonizing wails

About the price of butcher's meat.

"Cheer up," I tell them, "creels on creels

Are hastening to your relief;

Cheer up, my friends, one pound of eels

Is better than a loin of beef."

Then all ye fearful folk, dismayed

By threatened shortage of supplies,

Let not your anxious hearts be swayed

By croakers or their dismal cries;