When at length he sat up and was able to speak,

There was silence supreme! Not a shriek, not a scream,

"My father and mother were honest, though poor--"

"I skip forty years," said the Baker, in tears,

"A dear uncle of mine (after whom I was named)

"He remarked to me then," said that mildest of men,

" 'You may seek it with thimbles--and seek it with care;

("That's exactly the method," the Bellman bold

" 'But oh, beamish nephew, beware of the day,

"It is this, it is this that oppresses my soul,

"It is this, it is this--" "We have had that before!"

"I engage with the Snark--every night after dark--

"But if ever I meet with a Boojum, that day,