This is the yarn that M'Larty told by the brazier fire,
Where over the mud-filled trenches the star shells blaze and expire—
A yarn he swore was a true one; but Mac was an awful liar:—
"'Way up in the wild North Country, a couple of years ago
I hauled Hank out of a snowdrift—it was maybe thirty 'below,'
And I packed him along to my shanty and I took and thawed him with snow.
"He was stiff as a cold-store bullock, I might have left him for dead,
But I packed him along, as I've told you, and melted him out instead,
And I rolled him up in my blankets and put him to sleep in my bed.
"So he dwelt in my humble shanty while the wintry gales did roar,