Up in my garret bleak and bare
I tilted back on my broken chair,
And my three old pals were with me there,
Hunger and Thirst and Cold;
Hunger scowled at his scurvy mate:
Cold cowered down by the hollow grate,
And I hated them with a deadly hate
As old as life is old.
So up in my garret that's near the sky
I smiled a smile that was thin and dry:
"You've roomed with me twenty year," said I,
"Hunger and Thirst and Cold;
But now, begone down the broken stair!
I've suffered enough of your spite . . . so there!"
Bang! Bang! I slapped on the table bare
A glittering heap of gold.
"Red flames will jewel my wine to-night;
I'll loose my belt that you've lugged so tight;
Ha! Ha! Dame Fortune is smiling bright;
The stuff of my brain I've sold;
_Canaille_ of the gutter, up! Away!
You've battened on me for a bitter-long day;
But I'm driving you forth, and forever and aye,
Hunger and Thirst and Cold."
So I kicked them out with a scornful roar;
Yet, oh, they turned at the garret door;
Quietly there they spoke once more:
"The tale is not all told.
It's _au revoir_, but it's not good-by;
We're yours, old chap, till the day you die;
Laugh on, you fool! Oh, you'll never defy
Hunger and Thirst and Cold."
Hurrah! The crisis in my financial career is over. Once more I have
weathered the storm, and never did money jingle so sweetly in my pocket.
It was MacBean who delivered me. He arrived at the door of my garret
this morning, with a broad grin of pleasure on his face.
"Here," said he; "I've sold some of your rubbish. They'll take more
too, of the same sort."
With that he handed me three crisp notes. For a moment I thought that
he was paying the money out of his own pocket, as he knew I was
desperately hard up; but he showed me the letter enclosing the cheque he
had cashed for me.
So we sought the Grand Boulevard, and I had a Pernod, which rose to my
head in delicious waves of joy. I talked ecstatic nonsense, and seemed
to walk like a god in clouds of gold. We dined on frogs' legs and
Vouvray, and then went to see the Revue at the Marigny. A very merry
evening.
Such is the life of Bohemia, up and down, fast and feast; its very
uncertainty its charm.
Here is my latest ballad, another attempt to express the sentiment of
actuality: