Some public principles he had, But was no flatterer, nor fretter; He rapped his box when things were bad, And said "I cannot make them better!" And much he loathed the patriot's snort, And much he scorned the placeman's snuffle; And cut the fiercest quarrels short With-"Patience, gentlemen-and shuffle!" For full ten years his pointer Speed Had couched beneath her master's table; Old Quince averred, upon his troth, With his own hands, six days in seven. Whene'er they heard his ring or knock, Quicker than thought, the village slatterns Flung down the novel, smoothed the frock, And took up Mrs. Glasse, and patterns; Adine was studying baker's bills; Louisa looked the queen of knitters; But all was vain; and while decay Came, like a tranquil moonlight, o'er him, And found him gouty still, and gay, With no fair nurse to bless or bore him, His rugged smile and easy chair, His dread of matrimonial lectures, His wig, his stick, his powdered hair, Were themes for very strange conjectures. Some sages thought the stars above Had crazed him with excess of knowledge; Some heard he had been crost in love Before he came away from College; Some darkly hinted that his Grace Did nothing, great or small, without him; Some whispered, with a solemn face, That there was "something odd about him!" I found him, at threescore and ten, A single man, but bent quite double; Sickness was coming on him then To take him from a world of trouble: One frosty day he made his will,- And so he lived,—and so he died!- Tell her I hugged her rosy chain While life was flickering in the socket; And say, that when I call again, I'll bring a licence in my pocket. ""I've left my house and grounds to Fag,— I hope his master's shoes will suit him; And I've bequeathed to you my nag, To feed him for my sake,—or shoot him, 13 LIBRARY OF THE CALIFORNIA The Vicar's wife will take old Fox, She'll find him an uncommon mouser, And let her husband have my box, My Bible, and my Assmanshauser. "Whether I ought to die or not, My Doctors cannot quite determine; It's only clear that I shall rot, And be, like Priam, food for vermin. My debts are paid:-but Nature's debt Almost escaped my recollection: Tom!-we shall meet again;—and yet I cannot leave you my direction!" EVERY-DAY CHARACTERS III THE BELLE OF THE BALL-ROOM Il faut juger des femmes depuis la chaussure jusqu'à la coiffure exclusivement, à peu près comme on mesure le poisson entre queue et tête. -LA BRUYÈRE. YEARS-years ago, ere yet my dreams I fell in love with Laura Lily. I saw her at the County Ball: There, when the sounds of flute and fiddle Gave signal sweet in that old hall Of hands across and down the middle, Hers was the subtlest spell by far Of all that set young hearts romancing; |