"Grant sleep in hour's time, O Loud!"

(257.3-259.10)  Ok, so maybe Isabel wasn't quite up in her room at the end of yesterday's reading, but instead sadly sulked about because she had to go to bed soon.  Glancing back over the end of that passage, it seems like her family is trying to cheer her up at the very top of page 257.  And, moving into today's passage, we see the children -- "all boy more all girl" -- "running about their ways, going and coming, now at rhimba rhomba, now in trippiza trappaza, pleating a pattern Gran Geamatron showed them of gracehoppers, auntskippers and coneyfarm leppers."  This looks like the children -- Shaun, Shem, and Isabel -- running, hopping, skipping, and jumping all throughout the house (and perhaps HCE's pub, if HCE is the "Huddy" in "store Huddy").  As the "tinny" clock lets us know that it's 8 p.m., the children chant a kind of Wakeian nursery rhyme.  As they move about, HCE seems to be trying to gather them up as he barks at his customers in parentheticals that interrupt the rhyme, such as "(You'll catch it, don't fret, Mrs Tummy Lupton!  Come indoor, Scoffynosey, and shed your swank!)."  It could also be the children that HCE's yelling at, although he does seem to be broaching some adult subject matter here:  "(You're well held now, Missy Cheekspeer, and your panto's off!  Fie, for shame, Ruth Wheatacre, after all the booz said!)."  Regardless, the rhyme is brought to an abrupt end by another thunderword, which, by incorporating Danish, Italian, German, Irish, and other foreign words for "shut the door!" (as noted by McHugh), indicates the slamming of the door that shuts the children safely inside the house.  The play of the chapter finally reaching its conclusion, we her the crowd's applause with "Byfall." (which McHugh identifies as the German "Beifall," meaning "applause") and "Upploud!"

This being the first chapter in the second book of the Wake, the thunderword reminds us that we are in the divine age of Vico's four-part cycle.  Fittingly, then, the thunderword calls to the childrens' minds apocalyptic words like "Rendningrocks" ("Ragnarök") and "gttrdmmrng" ("Götterdämmerung").  This leads into a kind of peace settlement between Shem and Shaun in which Shem (Nick) accedes to Shaun (Mick):  "And let Nek Nekulon extol Mak Makal and let him say unto him:  Immi ammi Semmi."

This seeming peace achieved (at least temporarily), the chapter ends with a prayer for the children, who have "entered into their habitations."  The prayer, addressed to "O Loud," recognizes that troubles will eventually befall the children, but asks for the strength to persevere:  "Loud, heap miseries upon us yet entwine our arts with laughters low!"  This first chapter of the Wake's second book thus fittingly ends with silence:  "Mummum."