Page:Pen And Pencil Sketches - Volume I.djvu/113

72 enables me to rescue from oblivion the chorus only —

“Rat-a-tat-tat, with its feet pit-a-pat, Beware of that monster — the lodging-house cat ! ”

CARICATURE BY FREDERICK WALKER.

I was at once dubbed “the cat.” But Walker soon tired of this, and I became the “ curly one,” possibly in allusion to my hair, which was Hyperion- like in those days. But Walker’s nicknames grew into disuse, and became forgotten ; the one that has survived, and will cling as long as I live, is “Marco,” which is more melodious in sound, and comes more “trippingly on the tongue” than my harsh and ugly surname.