He came and knelt, with all his fat, Said she, "My taste will never learn So I must beg you will come here But still he stoutly urged his suit, But John, though he drank nothing else, The cruel maid, that caused his love, For looking in the butt, she saw Some say his spirit haunts the Crown But that is only talk; For after riding all his life, His ghost objects to walk. THE ALARMED SKIPPER MANY a long, long year ago, Of finding out, though "lying low," How near New York their schooners ran. They greased the lead before it fell, And then, by sounding through the night, A skipper gray, whose eyes were dim, Snug in his berth, at eight o'clock, This ancient skipper might be found; No matter how his craft would rock, He slept for skippers' naps are sound! -- The watch on deck would now and then One nignt, 't was Jotham Marden's watch, HOOD And so he mused, (the wanton wretch,) "We're all a set of stupid fools, To think the skipper knows by tasting And so he took the well greased lead, And rubbed it o'er a box of earth "Where are we now, sir? Please to taste." The skipper stormed, and tore his hair, Right over old Marm Hackett's garden!" J. T. FIELD THE SEVEN AGES OF MAN ALL the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players: At first, the infant, And then, the whining school-boy, with his sachel, Even in the cannon's mouth and then, the justice, With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut, With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side; Is second childishness, and mere oblivion; SHAKSPEARR THE THREE BLACK CROWS. Two honest tradesmen meeting in the Strand, "Hark ye," said he, About the crows!". Replied his friend. "'t is an odd story this, -"I don't know what it is," No? I'm surprised at that; Where I come from, it is the common chat: But you shall hear: an odd affair indeed! And that it happened, they are all agreed: Not to detain you from a thing so strange, A gentleman, that lives not far from 'Change, This week, in short, as all the alley knows, Taking a puke, has thrown up three black crows." "Impossible!"-"Nay, but it's really true; I had it from good hands, and so may you." "From whose, I pray?" So having named the man, Straight to inquire his curious comrade ran. Sir, did you tell"-relating the affair - Yes, sir, I did; and if it's worth your care, Ask Mr. Such-a-one; he told it me; But, by the by, 't was two black crows, not three." Whip to the third the virtuoso went. "Sir," and so forth-"Why, yes; the thing is fact, Though in regard to number not exact; It was not two black crows; 't was only one; The truth of that you may depend upon : The gentleman himself told me the case.' - "Where may I find him?” "Why, in such a place 66 'Not I!" And begged to know if true what he had heard. Black crows have been thrown up, three, two, and one, Did you say nothing of a crow at all?" BYROM THE GOUTY MERCHANT AND THE STRANGER. IN Broad-street buildings, (on a winter night,) Sat all alone, with one hand rubbing His feet, rolled up in fleecy hose; With t' other he 'd beneath his nose The Public Leger, in whose columns grubbing Ships, shops, and slops, Gums, galls, and groceries, ginger, gin, Entered, and most politely said Your footman, sir, has gone his nightly track To the King's Head, And left your door ajar, which I Observed in passing by; And thought it neighborly to give you notice." Ten thousand thanks In time of danger how very few get Such kind attentions from a stranger! |