[He took it for the lapstone in his glee], "Church bells," quoth he, "but ring us to the mass.

Well he knew the tricks of magic, And the lapstone on his knee Had the gift of the Mormon's goggles Or the stone of Doctor Dee.

" The shoemaker sat amid wax and leather, With lapstone over his knee; Where, snug in his shop, he defied all weather, A-drawing his quarters and sole together: A happy old man was he!

And then the hammer, it was observed, would come down upon his lapstone with double force, as if he were splitting the head of one of the enemy open, or his awl would go through the leather, as if he were plunging a bayonet into the belt of a soldier.