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Rh To identify his beloved wife, The cherished wife of his early years, The dear companion of the forests In the land of battle, but not of song. He groped about among the tables, Squinted here and there among the subjects, And picked out one from certain marks That he could call his wife, under oath; And was ready to pack it up and start For the land of early rose potatoes, When the professor, learned and wise, Told him that subject was a burly Negro, And wore a number fourteen boot, And never gathered spruce gum in the forests, In the wild woods of Hubbardton.

The students offered these raiders Bones and flesh enough to make a wife If they would quietly take them and depart