Page:Ballads of a Bohemian.djvu/61

Rh Uprose and shook my trembling hand and vanished in the night. And I went home and thought of him and had a dreadful dream Of portly men with each a wen, and woke up with a scream. And sure enough, next morning, as I prowled the Boulevard, A portly man with wenny nose roamed into my regard; Then like a flash I ran to him and clutched him by the arm: “Oh, sir,” said I, “I do not wish to see you come to harm; But if your life you value aught, I beg, entreat and pray— Don’t pass before the terrace of the Café de la Paix.” That portly man he looked at me with such a startled air, Then bolted like a rabbit down the rue Michaudière. “Ha! ha! I’ve saved a life,” I thought; and laughed in my relief, And straightway joined the Spanish man o’er his apéritif. And thus each day I dodged about and kept the strictest guard For portly men with each a wen upon the Boulevard. And then I hailed my Spanish pal, and sitting in the sun,