NUT-CRACKERS AND WOOD-CUTTERS. 77 



And up the tower their way is bent, 



To do the work for which they were sent. 



16. They are not to be told by the dozen or score ; 



By thousands they come, and by myriads, and more. 

 Such numbers had never been heard of before ; 

 Such a judgment had never been witnessed of yore. 



17. Down on his knees the bishop fell, 



And faster and faster his beads did he tell, 

 As louder and louder, drawing near, 

 The gnawing of their teeth he could hear. 



18. And in at the windows, and in at the door, 

 And through the walls, helter-skelter they pour, 

 And down from the ceiling, and up through the floor, 

 From the right and the left, from behind and before, 

 From within and without, from above and below, 

 And all at once to the bishop they go. 



19. They have whetted their teeth against the stones ; 

 And now they pick the bishop's bones ; 



They gnawed the flesh from every limb, 

 For they were sent to do judgment on him ! 



Robert Southey. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

 NUT-CRACKERS AND WOOD-CUTTERS. 



" The mountain and the squirrel 



Had a quarrel ; 

 And the former called the latter ' Little prig.' 



Bun replied, 

 1 You are doubtless very big ; 



