There were eight horses that went around and
around, and made the boat go. One afternoon, two dancing masters, who
were wicked fellows, that played the fiddle, and never went to church on
Sundays, got on the boat, and sat just where the horses had to pass them
as they went around.
Every time the horses went by, they jabbed them with their penknives.
The man who was driving the horses at last saw the blood dripping from
them, and the dancing masters were found out. Some young men on the boat
were so angry that they caught up a rope's end, and gave the dancing
masters a lashing, and then threw them into the water and made them swim
to the island.
When this boy took a seat, a young girl read some verses that she had
clipped from a newspaper:
"Don't kill the toads, the ugly toads,
That hop around your door;
Each meal the little toad doth eat
A hundred bugs or more.
"He sits around with aspect meek,
Until the bug hath neared,
Then shoots he forth his little tongue
Like lightning double-geared.
"And then he soberly doth wink,
And shut his ugly mug,
And patiently doth wait until
There comes another bug.
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