In the foreground lofty palm-trees, as if full of soaring love, Bore up coco-nuts and monkeys to the smiling heaven above; Jet-black Indian chieftains, at their feet too lovely girls were sighin, With an elephant beyond them—here and there a casual lion. You have seen in _Pilgrim’s Progress_ the Celestial City stand Like a hub in half a cart-wheel raying light o’er all the land. Well, in _that_, it is the felloes of the wheel which cause the blaze; So in Gloryville the fellows were the ones who made the rays. When these views were well matured the Governor went to Amsterdam, Where to Mynheer Schmuel Ganef first of all he made his slam: At a glance each “saw” the other—at a glance they went aside, And without a word of bother soon the plan was cut and dried. For one hundred thousand dollars then the Governor at will Gave away the full fee-simple of the town of Gloryville. “Dat for you,” said Schmuel Ganef, “is, I dink, not much too much, But I makesh de shtock a million ven I sells him to the Dutch.” And the secret of his selling was upon the artful plan Known to the police in Paris as the _vol Américain_, Whereby he who does the spilling manages the man who’s spilt Very nicely, for he makes him an accomplice in the guilt. Even as of old great sages managed the Parisian _fonds_, So in Amsterdam Heer Ganef peddled out his Glory bonds; And to all he slyly whispered, “I will let you in de first On de ground-floor—sell out quickly—for you know de ding may burst.” Woe to you who live by thieving, though you be of rogues the chief, Even the greatest will discover in due time his master-thief. True, he “let them in,” and truly on the very bottom floor, But was with the Gloryvillins in the cellar long before. And to tell you how the biters all got bitten were in vain; Here the Governor leaves my story, and he comes not in again. I will pass to later ages, when all Gloryville, you bet, Found itself extreme encumbered with an extra booming debt. Those who sold the bonds had vanished, those who hadn’t held the town, Little knew they of its glory over seas or great renown. They had nothing of the fruitage, though, alas! they held the plant, Nothing saw they of the picture, save, indeed, the Elephant. He who had been in the background now came trampling to the fore; Terribly he trampled on them, very awful was his roar! Very dreadful is the silence when no human voice responds To a legal requisition for the interest of our bonds. But ere long a shrewd reflection unto Moses Adams came— “Darned ef I’m a-gwine to suffer fur another party’s game; Wings is given to muskeeters—like muskeeters men can fly; Ef a strawberry-vine can travel with its roots, then why not I?”