and so the poor man of quality was laughed and sneered at by every body for a long time afterwards.”
The company were highly pleased with this story, and some of them jeeringly besought the student to tell them all that such a funny letter might contain; for—they added with affected humility—they were such poor ignorant creatures that none of them had great skill in the mysteries of letter-writing.
“Listen to me, gentlemen,” began the student. “I shall, with your leave, propound you something on my side, and, for once at least, the moral shall be a brief one. Here it is in two words:
You with the torch, let your neighbour alone,
Lest in singing his fingers, you scorch your own.
Now, my worthies, would you desire to witness my trick? It needs no learned clerk’s skill to understand it!”
“Go on! Go on!” shouted the half-tipsy peasants.
The student stept round the company, and drew some signs in the air with his finger before the mouth of each individual while he recited the following singular verses
The tongue and the cat
Are sly to overreach;
Fit couple they make,
Slaying each after each,
One with its teeth,
And one with its speech.
The tongue and the cat
Are not sly enough;
There’s a spell that has power
To give both a rebuff!
Come chatter, dear tongue,
Your true tipsy stuff!”
