"Then, we'll larn you. And now you repeat after me."
"'Poll put her arms a-kimbo.' Sing--come, out with it." And the poker
was again advanced.
"O God!" cried Vanslyperken.
"Sing, or by Heavens I'll shorten your nose! Sing, I say," repeated the
woman, advancing the poker so as actually to singe the skin.
"Take it away, and I will," cried Vanslyperken, breathless.
"Well then, 'Poll put her arms a-kimbo.'"
"'Poll put her arms a-kimbo,'" repeated Vanslyperken.
"That's saying, not singing," cried the woman. "Now again. 'At the
admiral's house looked she.'"
"'At the admiral's house looked she,'" replied Vanslyperken, in a
whining tone.
Thus, with the poker staring him in the face, was Vanslyperken made to
repeat the very song for singing which he would have flogged Jemmy
Ducks. There was, however, a desperate attempt to avoid the last stanza.
"I'll give you a bit of my mind, old boy,
Port Admiral, you be d----d."
Nothing but the tip of his nose actually burnt would have produced these
last words; but fear overcame him, and at last they were repeated. Upon
which all the women shouted and shrieked with laughter, except Moggy,
who continued sipping her port wine.
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