Part II

“Tell me, HENRY WADSWORTH, ALFRED POET CLOSE, or MISTER TUPPER,Do you write the bon bon mottoes my ELVIRA pulls at supper?”

But HENRY WADSWORTH smiled, and said he had not had that honour;And ALFRED, too, disclaimed the words that told so much upon her.

“MISTER MARTIN TUPPER, POET CLOSE, I beg of you inform us;”But my question seemed to throw them both into a rage enormous.

MISTER CLOSE expressed a wish that he could only get anigh to me;And MISTER MARTIN TUPPER sent the following reply to me:

“A fool is bent upon a twig, but wise men dread a bandit,”—Which I know was very clever; but I didn’t understand it.

Seven weary years I wandered—Patagonia, China, Norway,Till at last I sank exhausted at a pastrycook his doorway.

There were fuchsias and geraniums, and daffodils and myrtle,So I entered, and I ordered half a basin of mock turtle.

He was plump and he was chubby, he was smooth and he was rosy,And his little wife was pretty and particularly cosy.

And he chirped and sang, and skipped about, and laughed with laughterhearty—He was wonderfully active for so very stout a party.

And I said, “O gentle pieman, why so very, very merry?Is it purity of conscience, or your one-and-seven sherry?”

But he answered, “I’m so happy—no profession could be dearer—If I am not humming ‘Tra! la! la!’ I’m singing ‘Tirer, lirer!’

“First I go and make the patties, and the puddings, and the jellies,Then I make a sugar bird-cage, which upon a table swell is;

“Then I polish all the silver, which a supper-table lacquers;Then I write the pretty mottoes which you find inside the crackers.”—

“Found at last!” I madly shouted. “Gentle pieman, you astound me!”Then I waved the turtle soup enthusiastically round me.

And I shouted and I danced until he’d quite a crowd around him—And I rushed away exclaiming, “I have found him! I have found him!”

And I heard the gentle pieman in the road behind me trilling,“‘Tira, lira!’ stop him, stop him! ‘Tra! la! la!’ the soup’s ashilling!”

But until I reached ELVIRA’S home, I never, never waited,And ELVIRA to her FERDINAND’S irrevocably mated!