hing, I ain't a marryin'
man, and for another thing, what she really sez to me when we got to
land was, "You're a noble feller, an' here's five shillin's for you, and
any time you happen to be round our way, just give a ring at the
servants' bell, and there'll always be a feed waitin' for you in the
kitchen." However, you've got to have songs to fill in the time with,
and when a feller's got a rotten word like Buncle to find rhymes for,
there's no sayin' how a song'll end.'

'The exigencies of rhyme,' said Bunyip Bluegum, 'may stand excused from
a too strict insistence on verisimilitude, so that the general gaiety is
thereby promoted. And now,' he added, 'before retiring to rest, let us
all join in song,' and grasping each other's hands they loudly sang--

THE PUDDIN'-OWNERS' EVENSONG

'Let feeble feeders stoop
To plates of oyster soup.
Let pap engage
The gums of age
And appetites that droop;
We much prefer to chew
A Steak-and-kidney stew.

'Let yokels coarse appease
Their appetites with cheese.
Let women dream
Of cakes and cream,
We scorn fal-lals like these;
Our sterner sex extols
The joy of boiled jam rolls.

'We scorn digestive pills;
Give us the food that fills;
Who bravely stuff
Themselves with Duff,
May laugh at Doctor's bills.
For medicine, partake
Of kidney, stewed with steak.

'Then plight our faith anew
Three puddin'-owners true,
Who boldly claim
In Friendship's name
The noble Irish stoo,
Hurrah, Hurrah, Hurroo!'

Third Slice

[Illustration]

'After our experience of yesterday,' said Bill Barnacle as the company
of Puddin'-owners set off along the road with their Puddin', 'we shall
have to be particularly careful. For what with low puddin'-thieves
disguising themselves as firemen, and low Wombats sneakin' our Puddin'
while we're helpin' to put out fires, not to speak of all the worry and
bother of tryin' to get information out of parrots and bandicoots an'
hedgehogs, why, it's enough to make a man suspect his own grandfather of
bein' a puddin'-snatcher.'

'As for me,' said Sam Sawnoff, practising boxing attitudes as he walked
along, 'I feel like laying out the first man we meet on the off-chance
of his being a puddin'-thief.'

'Indeed,' observed Bunyip Bluegum, 'to have one's noblest feelings
outraged by reposing a too great trust in unworthy people, is to end by
regarding all humanity with a