'Twasn't hollow by far;
Breathless at first as an exhausted receiver,
When the air was let in, lo! man, the achiever!
But an accident happened, a cruel surprise;
How frail proved the man, and how very unwise!
As if plaster of Paris, and not Paradise,
No more of clay consecrate,
He broke up disconsolate,
Pot-luck for his fortune, though the world's potentate.
It brings to our memory that Indian camp,