What country is this? where some strange-looking men
Make odd-looking figures with pencil and pen;
The ghost of old Daboll stalks grimly about;
And this one is Greenleaf—now, Thomson steps out;
Charles Davies has come, arm-and-arm with Bourdon,
While Robinson, Loomis, and others crowd on.
Conundrums they offer; strange riddles they state;
And set each poor wretch to maltreating his slate.
How the hands of a clock meet at high twelve—and then,
When will that old time-piece its fists clench again?