148 THE FRESH-WATER SIREN. 



And others said, waking or else in a dream, 



They had seen something float in the crystal stream. 



Thus the Siren's abode, or its neighbouring location, 



Obtained by degrees but a sad reputation : 



Yet the beldame found out, (a fact proved in society,) 



That there 's nothing so gainful as bad notoriety. 



Her decoy overflowed, where she caught one before, 



Well I ween she would now lay hold of a score. 



From old and from young, from high and from low, 



From widows in weeds, and from maidens in woe, 



There now daily arose such a shrill lamentation, 



That it entered, at length, the long ears of the nation. 



The deputies meet vent a torrent of pity ; 



And their eloquence spent, they appoint a committee, 



To sit on this cockatrice egg of affright, 



And try if they could'nt bring something to light. 



It might seem a hard task information to glean, 



On what people knew nought of, and scarcely had seen ; 



Yet of witnesses numerous, I wot, was no lack, 



And of evidence ample to break a mule's back. 



Strange ! the mystery remained without further solution ; 



But then the committee pass'd this resolution, 



(A wonderful judgment carried nem. con.) 



That the parties yet absent were certainly gone ; 



To which an amendment was finally carried, 



That they'd not have been lost, if at home they had tarried. 



