Page:Edgar Wallace--Tam o the Scoots.djvu/42

 drum into him at close range an' the puir feller side-slippit an' nose-dived. Noo was it Freetz, then? Weel, weel!"

"We want you to take a wreath over—he'll be buried at Ludezeel."

"With the verra greatest pleasure," said Tam heartily, "and if ye'll no mind, Captain, A'd like to compose a wee vairse to pit in the box."

For two hours Tam struggled heroically with his composition. At the end of that time he produced with awkward and unusual diffidence a poem written in his sprawling hand and addressed:

"I'll read you the poem, Captain Blackie, sir-r," said Tam nervously, and after much coughing he read:

A graund an' nooble clood Was the flyin' hero's shrood Who dies at half-past seven And he verra well desairves