And here , -- with a laced coat and a cocked hat , and a riding whip in his hand , -- here comes a little gentleman , small enough to be king of the fairies , and ugly enough to be king of the gnomes , and takes a flying leap into the saddle . Merrily , merrily plays the music , and merrily gallops the pony , and merrily rides the little old gentleman . Come , Annie , into the street again ; perchance we may see monkeys on horseback there ! Mercy on us , what a noisy world we quiet people live in ! Did Annie ever read the Cries of London City ? With what lusty lungs doth yonder man proclaim that his wheelbarrow is full of lobsters ! Here comes another mounted on a cart , and blowing a hoarse and dreadful blast from a tin horn , as much as to say , `` Fresh fish ! '' And hark ! a voice on high , like that of a muezzin from the summit of a mosque , announcing that some chimney-sweeper has emerged from smoke and soot , and darksome caverns , into the upper air . What cares the world for that ? But , well-a-day , we hear a shrill voice of affliction , the scream of a little child , rising louder with every repetition of that smart , sharp , slapping sound , produced by an open hand on tender flesh . Annie sympathizes , though without experience of such direful woe . Lo ! the town crier again , with some new secret for the public ear . Will he tell us of an auction , or of a lost pocketbook , or a show of beautiful wax figures , or of some monstrous beast more horrible than any in the caravan ? I guess the latter . See how he uplifts the bell in his right hand , and shakes it slowly at first , then with a hurried motion , till the clapper seems to strike both sides at once , and the sounds are scattered forth in quick succession , far and near . Ding-dong ! Ding-dong ! Ding-dong !
Now he raises his clear , loud voice , above all the din of the town ; it drowns the buzzing talk of many tongues , and draws each man 's mind from his own business ; it rolls up and down the echoing street and ascends XXXXX the hushed chamber of the sick , and penetrates downward to the cellar kitchen , where the hot cook turns from the fire to listen .
at by for in into on than that till to