Tell us more of Rumpalumpkin ;
I should speak up very quickly,
And reply to him in this way:

"In the valley of Mus-tug-gin, That extremely verdant valley,

Where, in summer, green the trees were, Bare and leafless in the winter;

Where the streams flowed in the Summer,

But in Winter time were frozen;

In this very verdant valley,
Lighted by the sparkling waters,

By the forest branches shaded,

Lived the man as played the bagpipes, Played-and sang between the blowingsLived the minstrel Rumpalumpkin."

Ye who like this sort of legend,

Like it well enough to listen,

Like the way the thing is done in,

Like a story so unmeaning,

That, to save your life, you cannot

See nor head nor tail unto it,

Tell the end from the beginning—

Listen to this wondrous story

To this Song of Milgenwater.

Ye who will not writhe nor wriggle While I tell this story to you,

Will not look and act uneasy,

But will give your whole attention,
Without gaping, stretching, yawning,

While I tell this story to you;
Listen now, for I will tell it,

Tell it truly, as I told you,

As I told you I would tell it,
On condition, you remember,

That you would not writhe nor wriggle,
But would give your whole attention
Without gaping, stretching, yawning,
While I tell this story to you;
Listen now all ye, I pray you,
Hear this Song of Milgenwater.

16

I.

MILGENWATER'S CHILDHOOD.

LONG ago, in days that are not,

In the times that no one knows of,
Right head-foremost thro' the evening
From the shining planet Venus,
Swiftly down came Kimo-kairo,
Came the long haired Kimo-kairo,
Married, but without no children.

She was climbing up a plum-tree,
Plum-tree in the planet Venus,

Climbing with some other women,

When, alas, the branch she stood ou

Cracked and snapped, because 't was rotten,

Cracked and snapped off quite completely,

And head-foremost thro' the evening,
Fell the long haired Kimo-kairo,

Fell the shrieking Kimo kairo,

Fell the long-haired, shrieking Kimo,
Down to Plow-e-tup the cornfield,
In the cornfield soft and mushy;
"Look! a rocket!" said the farmers,
"Some one must have fired a rocket,
'Canse that was the stick that come down."
'Midst the chickweed and the clover,
Lying on some last year's huskings,

In the Plow-e-tup, the cornfield,
Kimo-kairo had a son born,
And she called him Milgenwater,
Him as is our story's hero,
The real, genuine Milgenwater.
But alas for Kimo-kairo!

And alas for Milgen water!
She, the mother, was so injured
Falling from the planet Venus,
Plum-tree in the planet Venus,

And the Plow-e-tup the cornfield

Was so very cool and open,
Such a breezy place to lie in,

That, to save her life, she could not
Keep from dying while she lay there,
Lay upon the last year's huskings;
So she died, poor Kimo-kairo,
And beside her, Milgenwater

Rolled and cried, unhappy baby,
Wond'ring why she did n't nurse him,

Thinking her alive as usual.

There they both were found, next morning,

By the ancient nurse Marcosset;

Her whom all the neighbors honored

For her skill in nursing sick-folks,
Chiefly, through the chills and fever:
There she found sweet Kimo-kairo
Lying dead upon the huskings;
And not far off-found our hero,

Very wide awake and kicking.

On the banks of Watta-puddel