frightened, here goes--Boo!"

"Ah," said the little boy, "that is very kind of you; but I don't feel
that it has made any impression."

Tom offered to upset him, punch him, stamp on him, fettle him over the
head with a brick, or anything else whatsoever which would give him the
slightest comfort.

But he only thanked Tom very civilly, in fine long words which he had
heard other folk use, and which, therefore, he thought were fit and
proper to use himself; and cried on till his papa and mamma came, and
sent off for the Powwow man immediately. And a very good-natured
gentleman and lady they were, though they were heathens; and talked
quite pleasantly to Tom about his travels, till the Powwow man arrived,
with his thunderbox under his arm.

And a well-fed, ill-favoured gentleman he was, as ever served Her
Majesty at Portland. Tom was a little frightened at first; for he
thought it was Grimes. But he soon saw his mistake: for Grimes always
looked a man in the face; and this fellow never did. And when he spoke,
it was fire and smoke; and when he sneezed, it was squibs and crackers;
and when he cried (which he did whenever it paid him), it was boiling
pitch; and some of it was sure to stick.

"Here we are again!" cried he, like the clown in a pantomime. "So you
can't feel frightened, my little dear--eh? I'll do that for you. I'll
make an impression on you! Yah! Boo! Whirroo! Hullabaloo!"

And he rattled, thumped, brandished his thunderbox, yelled, shouted,
raved, roared, stamped, and danced corrobory like any black fellow; and
then he touched a spring in the thunderbox, and out popped turnip-ghosts
and magic-lanthorns and pasteboard bogies and spring-heeled Jacks, and
sallaballas, with such a horrid din, clatter, clank, roll, rattle, and
roar, that the little boy turned up the whites of his eyes, and fainted
right away.

And at that his poor heathen papa and mamma were as much delighted as if
they had found a gold mine; and fell down upon their knees before the
Powwow man, and gave him a palanquin with a pole of solid silver and
curtains of cloth of gold; and carried him about in it on their own
backs: but as soon as they had taken him up, the pole stuck to their
shoulders, and they could not set him down any more, but carried him on
willynilly, as Sinbad carried the old man of the sea: which was a
pitiable sight to see; for the father was a very brave officer, and wore
two swords and a blue button; and the mother w