Page:The Bab Ballads.djvu/162

 And he answered, "Oh, ,
 * For a moment I hope you will wait,—


 * Is the queen of a neighbouring state—
 * A remarkably neighbouring state.

",
 * She would pickle deliciously cold—

And her four pretty Amazons, too,
 * Are enticing, and not very old—
 * Twenty-seven is not very old.

"There is neat little ,
 * There is rollicking ,

There is jocular ,
 * There is musical —
 * There's the nightingale !"

So the forces of
 * Marched forth in a terrible row,

And the ladies who fought for
 * Prepared to encounter the foe—
 * This dreadful insatiate foe!

But they sharpened no weapons at all,
 * And they poisoned no arrows—not they!

They made ready to conquer or fall
 * In a totally different way—
 * An entirely different way.