continued:

"But we will lambast you, you straight-waisted pigs,
As sure as black's yellow and thistles is figs!
Yea, surer than squashes our vengeance we'll wreak;
If it isn't today, why, we'll do it next week!"

Sara had a distressed feeling that this was rather a weak ending, but
nobody else seemed to notice it; indeed, several of the Fractions were
so incensed at the bold threat that two or three of them called out,
"Shoot him at sunrise!" The Greatest Common Divisor, however, merely
gave him a savage and contemptuous glance over his tear-mug, as much
as to say that he would annihilate him when it was quite convenient.

In a few moments they were again entirely absorbed in their drinking
and carousing, and then Pirlaps cautiously touched Schlorge on the
arm. "Let's have a council of war," he said, in a very low voice,
drawing him a little to one side. "I have an idea. Where shall we go?"

"Better come down to the Smithy," said Schlorge. "They haven't
discovered it yet."

Very quietly then, while the Fractions were busy drinking, Schlorge
and Pirlaps and Avrillia and Sara and the Snimmy and the Snimmy's wife
slipped out of the Garden and down the path to the Dimplesmithy. They
didn't think it necessary to tell the Plynck, who was too much crushed
to be of use, or the Teacup, for whom they dreaded the slightest
shock. The Echo of the Plynck might have been useful, only she was
still frozen into the pool.

The farther they got from the Garden the less blighted and the more
natural everything looked; and by the time they reached the road, they
would not have suspected, from the look of the country, that
destruction was lurking so near.

When they reached the Dimplesmithy, they sent the Snimmy to sniff out
the neighborhood carefully with his debilitating nose, to see if there
were any spies about; and when he returned, Pirlaps carefully unfolded
his plan.

"I am convinced," he said earnestly, "from what I have observed this
morning, that Poetry will be absolutely fatal to these hateful
intruders who have descended upon us. The only question in my mind is,
How shall we apply it? After thinking about it most carefully, I have
worked out a tentative plan. Avrillia, I am sure, can furnish us
plenty of ammunition." (Sara, glancing admiringly at Avrillia, saw the
thrilling look of high resolve that shone in her face.) "And Schlorge
will have to make us two or three m