sockets,

And put both your hands in your pockets;

Your eyes will show you things so gay,

And I hope you'll find enough in your pockets to pay

For the things you buy.

Good-bye!'

And he laughed and seemed pleased; but when Mrs. Morrison, Albert's mother, got that poem about the black beetle that was poisoned she was not so pleased, and she said it was horrid, and made her flesh creep. You know the poem. It says:

 'Oh, beetle, how I weep to see Thee lying on thy poor back: It is so very sad to see You were so leggy and black. I wish you were crawling about alive again, But many people think this is nonsense and a shame.' 

'Oh, beetle, how I weep to see

Thee lying on thy poor back:

It is so very sad to see

You were so leggy and black.

I wish you were crawling about alive again,

But many people think this is nonsense and a shame.'

Noël would recite, no matter what we said, and he stood up on a chair, and everyone, in their blind generousness, paid sixpence to hear him.[Pg 26] It was a long poem of his own about the Duke of Wellington, and it began:

[Pg 26]

 'Hail, faithful leader of the brave band Who went to make Napoleon understand He couldn't have everything his own way. We taught him this on Waterloo day.' 

'Hail, faithful leader of the brave band

Who went to make Napoleon understand

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