The Wit and Humor of America, Volume IX (of X)

The Wit and Humor of America, Volume IX (of X)

They all climbed up on a high board-fence Nine little Goblins, with green-glass eyes Nine little Goblins that had no sense, And couldn't tell coppers from cold mince pies; And they all climbed up on the fence, and sat And I asked them what they were staring at. And the first one said, as he scratched his head With a queer little arm that reached out of his ear And rasped its claws in his hair so red "This is what this little arm is fer!" And he scratched and stared, and the next one said "How on earth do you scratch your head?" And he laughed like the screech of a rusty hinge Laughed and laughed till his face grew black; And when he choked, with a final twinge Of his stifling laughter, he thumped his back With a fist that grew on the end of his tail Till the breath came back to his lips so pale. And the third little Goblin leered round at me And there were no lids on his eyes at all And he clucked one eye, and he says, says he, "What is the style of your socks this fall?" And he clapped his heelsand I sighed to see [Pg 1636]That he had hands where his feet should be. Then a bald-faced Goblin, gray and grim, Bowed his head, and I saw him slip His eyebrows off, as I looked at him, And paste them over his upper lip; And then he moaned in remorseful pain "WouldAh, would I'd me brows again!" And then the whole of the Goblin band Rocked on the fence-top to and fro, And clung, in a long row, hand in hand, Singing the songs that they used to know Singing the songs that their grandsires sung In the goo-goo days of the Goblin-tongue. And ever they kept their green-glass eyes Fixed on me with a stony stare Till my own grew glazed with a dread surmise, And my hat whooped up on my lifted hair, And I felt the heart in my breast snap to As you've heard the lid of a snuff-box do. And they sang, "You're asleep! There is no board-fence, And never a Goblin with green-glass eyes! 'Tis only a vision the mind invents After a supper of cold mince-pies, And you're doomed to dream this way," they said, "And you sha'n't wake up till you're clean plum dead!" [Pg 1637] ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 24433
Author: Wilder, Marshall P. (Marshall Pinckney)
Release Date: Jan 26, 2008
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Wilder, Marshall P. (Marshall Pinckney), 1859-1915