Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-11-13
THE LAY OF THE LOBSTER.

Gc button your boots with a tigers tail,
Comb down your golden hair,
And livef for Il week upon bubble and squeak
On the steps of a winding stair.
And whenever yon feel like a conger ell
Or as hard Us an old split pea,
Cnfastcn the lid as the hedgehog did,
Then come and listen to me.
1t happened when the sun was high,
And the wind blew fresa and free.
When the bottle nosed whale was lunching on
shale,
And washing It down with the sea
1t was close by the side of a lonely stream
That foamed on a desolate strand;
A lady fair was sitting there,
And a box was in her hand.
She raised the box, and she gave It a shake,
And she smiled when She found it was fun;
Then she played on a fife with the edge OF a
knife,
Keeping time with a three-foot rule.
And this was the song that the lady sang;
Just open this box for me;
| love sardines when they're boiled with
beans,
And mixed with sands of the sea. =
The sound Of her voice was sweet to hear,
And was waited DER many a wave,
Till at last It fell, like a siren spell,
On the heart Of a norman brave.
He listened awhile, then smiled a smile
AS he looked at himself in the glass,
Then dressed with speed in an ulster of
weed
And trousers Of tangle and grass.
He went to the place where the lady sang,
And he heard what she'd got to say:
She told him the dish was sardine fish,
But he bolted clean away.
For his brotherin-law vas Of kin 10 a skate;
The skate was of high degree,
And every one knew it was perfectly true
Sardines were the cousins of he.
With a terrible frown he dived straight Town
To the depths Of the ocean green;
His trousers he tore and Ais utter, and swore
They would never again be seen.
But the lady sang as she sang before:
Just open this box for me-,
For | love sardines when they're boiled with
beans,
And mixed with the sands OF the sea-"
She sang this same, but as nobody came,
She thought 1t as well to try,
So down on the rocks she hammered the box
And then she began to cry:
ooh. | love sardines when they're boiled with
beans,
And mixed with the sands of the sea,
| am dying for some. VIII nobody come
And open this box for me!'
Now all alone, close under a stone,
a lobster was lying asleep;
At the sound Of her cries he rubbed his eyes,
And picked himself up for a peep.
He could open the box without any knocks,
So he went and he offered his claw.
At the sight of the beast her misery ceased,
And she asked for a shake of his paw.
He gave her his claw on the desolate strand,
But he never would let her go.
"My lady" says he, 'you'H come with me
To the regions down below"
He took the lady straight away
10th depths of the ocean blue,
And whatever became of that beautiful dame
There is nobody ever knew.
There are some folks say on the LIST Of May,
She is seen with a glass in her hand,
And that she was sold to the merGan bold
Who came to the desolate strand.
But every night when the moon shines bright
The ghost of the lady is seen,
All dressed at her need in an ulster Of weed,
And her hair is a bright sea-green.
And the ghost of a great big sardlnc box
Comes stalking along the shore,
A2d the ghost Of a little sardine fish
Gees rollicking on before.
And the fishermen hear the sound Of knocks,
And, "Open this box for me,
Cause | love sardines when they're boiled
with bean,
And mixed with the sands Of the sea-
MORAL.