At length they settled some one should
By each of them be haunted,
And so arrange that either could
Exert his prowess vaunted.
"The Quaint against the Statuesque"--
By competition lawful--
The goblin backed the Quaint Grotesque,
The ghost the Grandly Awful.
"Now," said the goblin, "here's my plan--
In attitude commanding,
I see a stalwart Englishman
By yonder tailor's standing.
"The very fittest man on earth
My influence to try on--
Of gentle, p'r'aps of noble birth,
And dauntless as a lion!
Now wrap yourself within your shroud--
Remain in easy hearing--
Observe--you'll hear him scream aloud
When I begin appearing!
The imp with yell unearthly--wild--
Threw off his dark enclosure:
His dauntless victim looked and smiled
With singular composure.
For hours he tried to daunt the youth,
For days, indeed, but vainly--
The stripling smiled!--to tell the truth,
The stripling smiled inanely.
For weeks the goblin weird and wild,
That noble stripling haunted;
For weeks the stripling stood and smiled,
Unmoved and all undaunted.
The sombre ghost exclaimed, "Your plan
Has failed you, goblin, plainly:
Now watch yon hardy Hieland man,
So stalwart and ungainly.
"These are the men who chase the roe,
Whose footsteps never falter,
Who bring with them, where'er they go,
A smack of old SIR WALTER.
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