What! teeth, and his knuckles cramm'd into his coat pocket. Then away you go, lounging lazily along. Ah, Tom ! What! Will rolling away you see! How are you, Jack? my little Dolly!-that's the way-isn't it, mother? Lady D. The very air and grace of our young nobility! Lord D. Is it? Grace must have got plaguy limber and lopt, of late. There's the last Lord Duberly's father, done in our dining room, with a wig as wide as a wash-tub, and stuck up as stiff as a poker. He was one of your tip-tops, too, in his time, they tell me; he carried a gold stick before George the First. Lady D. Yes; and looks, for all the world, as straight as if he had swallowed it. Lord D. No matter for that, my lady. What signifies dignity without its crackeristick? A man should know how to bemean himself, when he is as rich as Pluto. Pang. Plutus, if you please, my lord. Pluto, no doubt, has disciples, and followers of fashion; but Plutus is the ruler of riches:- — Δημήτηρ μεν Πλοῦτον ἐγείνατο.”—Hesiod. Hem ! Lord D. There, Dick! d'ye hear how the tutorer talks? Odd rabbit, he can ladle you out Latin by the quart; and grunts Greek like a pig. I've gin him three hundred a year and settled all he 's to larn you. Ha'n't I doctor? "Thrice to thine-" Pang. Certainly, my lord. Dick. Yes, we know all about that. Don't we, doctor? Pang. Decidedly-" and thrice to thine-" Lady D. Aye, aye; clearly understood. Isn't it, doctor? Pang. Undoubtedly-" And thrice again to make up nine"-Shakspeare. Hem! (These three quotations asile A SONG OF THE RAILROAD.-C. T. WOLFE THROUGH the mold and through the clay, By the margin of the lake, Crashing! dashing! Over ridges, Gullies, bridges! By the bubbling rill, And mill Highways, Byways, Hollow hill— Jumping-bumping— Like forty thousand giants snoring i Dash along! Slash along! Crash along! Flash along! On! on with a jump, And a bump, And a roll! Hies the fire-fiend to its destined goal! O'er the acqueduct and bog, Now a tavern-now a steeple— Grumble-stumble Rumble-tumble Fretting getting in a stew! Church and steeple, gaping people-- By the foundry, past the forge, Flit like spectres as you pass ! If to hail a friend inclined— Whish! whirr! ka-swash! he's left behind! Rumble, tumble, all the day, Thus we pass the hours away. THE FARMER AND THE LAWYER.-HORACE SMITH. A COUNSEL in the Common Pleas, who was esteemed a mighty wit, upon the strength of a chance hit, amid a thousand flippancies, and his occasional bad jokes in bullying, bantering, browbeating, ridiculing, and maltreating women, or other timid folks, in a late cause resolved to hoax a clownish, Yorkshire farmer,-one who by his uncouth look and gait appeared expressly meant by Fate for being quizzed and played upon. So having tipped the wink to those in the back rows, who kept their laughter bottled down until our wag should draw the tork, he smiled jocosely on the clown, and went to work. "Well, Farmer Numbskull, how go caives at York?" "Why, not, sir, as they do wi' you, but on four legs instead of two." "Officer!" cried the legal elf, piqued at the laugh against himself, "do pray keep silence down below there. Now look at me, clown; attend! have I not seen you somewhere, friend?" Yes, very like; I often go there." "Our rustic's waggish-quite laconic !" the counsel cried, with grin sardonic; "I wish I'd known this prodigy, this genius of the clods, when I on circuit was at York residing. Now, farmer, do for once speak true; mind, you're on oath, so tell me you who doubtless think yourself so clever, are there as many fools as ever in the West Riding?" Why, no, sir; no; we've got our share, but not so many as when you were there." 66 THE MORALISTS.-ANON. So prone are all men to debate, But mark his life-that surest test- Is plainly visible in them; The truth of which remark to show, Over a glass of Burton's Lest, Tim thus his loving friend address'd: "Well, Peter, 'tis a shameful sin That Dick should swill such seas of gin; Oft from the tavern drunk he reels, Tag, rag, and bobtail at his heels. Now, for my part, I cannot think What makes the man so fond of drink." "Nor I," said Peter, with a groan— "'Tis vastly wonderful, I own; But, bless me! what a change appears The world grows more deprav'd, I'm sure! "E'en so," cried Tim, and fill'd his glass, "Dick's crimes all other crimes surpass. I scorn the man, who, void of shame, With such base stigmas marks his name, And, careless of a future state, Thus trifles with the shafts of fate. Thus long, in many a speech sublime, The very fault they thus condemn, Who rail'd as heartily at him. |