I.

Tapp, tapp! Rapp, rapp! “Get up, Gaffer Ferryman.” “Eh? who is there?” The clock strikes Three. “Get up, do, Gaffer! You are the very man We have been long—long—longing to see.” The ferryman rises, growling and grumbling, And goes fum-fumbling, and stumbling, and tumbling, Over the wares in his way to the door. But he sees no more Than he saw before, Till a voice is heard—“O Ferryman, dear! Here we are waiting, all of us here! We are a wee, wee colony, we; Some two hundred in all, or three. Ferry us over the river Lee Ere dawn of day, And we will pay The most we may, In our own wee way!”