But when the sun was low in the West,
        The Dong arose and said,—­
    “What little sense I once possessed
        Has quite gone out of my head!”
    And since that day he wanders still
    By lake and forest, marsh and hill,
    Singing, “O somewhere, in valley or plain,
    Might I find my Jumbly Girl again! 
    For ever I’ll seek by lake and shore
    Till I find my Jumbly Girl once more!”

        Playing a pipe with silvery squeaks,
        Since then his Jumbly Girl he seeks;
        And because by night he could not see,
        He gathered the bark of the Twangum Tree
          On the flowery plain that grows. 
          And he wove him a wondrous Nose,—­
        A Nose as strange as a Nose could be!

Of vast proportions and painted red,
And tied with cords to the back of his head. 
In a hollow rounded space it ended
With a luminous Lamp within suspended,
All fenced about
With a bandage stout
To prevent the wind from blowing it out;
And with holes all round to send the light
In gleaming rays on the dismal night

And now each night, and all night long,
Over those plains still roams the Dong;
And above the wail of the Chimp and Snipe
You may hear the squeak of his plaintive pipe,
While ever he seeks, but seeks in vain,
To meet with his Jumbly Girl again;
Lonely and wild, all night he goes,—­
The Dong with a luminous Nose! 
And all who watch at the midnight hour,
From Hall or Terrace or lofty Tower,
Cry, as they trace the Meteor bright,
Moving along through the dreary night,—­

      “This is the hour when forth he goes,

    The Dong with a luminous Nose! 

    Yonder, over the plain he goes,—­

        He goes! 

        He goes,—­

    The Dong with a luminous Nose!”

THE TWO OLD BACHELORS.

[Illustration]

Two old Bachelors were living in one house;
One caught a Muffin, the other caught a Mouse. 
Said he who caught the Muffin to him who caught the Mouse,—­
“This happens just in time!  For we’ve nothing in the house,
Save a tiny slice of lemon and a teaspoonful of honey,
And what to do for dinner—­since we haven’t any money? 
And what can we expect if we haven’t any dinner,
But to lose our teeth and eyelashes and keep on growing thinner?”

Said he who caught the Mouse to him who caught the Muffin,—­
“We might cook this little Mouse, if we only had some Stuffin’! 
If we had but Sage and Onion we could do extremely well;
But how to get that Stuffin’ it is difficult to tell!”

Those two old Bachelors ran quickly to the town
And asked for Sage and Onion as they wandered up and down;
They borrowed two large Onions, but no Sage was to be found
In the Shops, or in the Market, or in all the Gardens round.