Page:Captain Craig; a book of poems.djvu/51

Rh And after that, if you propitiate Gambrinus, I shall play you that Andante As the world has never heard it played before.' So saying, he produced a piece of paper, Unfolded it, and read, '

"’Carmichael had a kind of joke-disease, And he had queer things fastened on his wall. There are three green china frogs that I recall More potently than anything, for these Three frogs have demonstrated, by degrees, What curse was on the man to make him fall: "They are not ordinary frogs at all, They are the Frogs of Aristophanes."

"’God! how he laughed whenever he said that; And how we caught from one another's eyes The flash of what a tongue could never tell! We always laughed at him, no matter what The joke was worth. But when a man's brain dies, We are not always glad . . . Poor Carmichael!’

"’I am a sowbug and a necrophile,' Said Pretzel, 'and the gods are growing old; The stars are singing Golden hair to gray,