_Some folks_ should see that my bashfulness was wearing off faster than the gold from an oroide watch.

Oh, I would show 'em! Some things could be done as well as others.

I would no longer be the laughing-stock of Babbletown.

My past record should be wiped out! I would write my poem, and I would _read it_--read it calmly and impressively, so as to do full justice to it.
I got the poem ready.

I committed it to memory, so that if the lights were dim, or I lost my place, I should not be at the mercy of the manuscript.