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A Christmas Carol.

Young men and maids, and girls and boys,
Give life to one another's joys;

And you anon shall by their noise
Perceive that they are merry.

The client now his suit forbears,
The prisoner's heart is eased;
The debtor drinks away his cares,
And for the time is pleased.

Though other purses be more fat,
Why should we pine or grieve at that?
Hang sorrow! care will kill a cat,
And therefore let's be merry.

The wenches with their wassail bowls,
About the streets are singing;

The boys are come to catch the owls,'
The wild mare in is bringing.2

Our kitchen-boy hath broke his box,3
And to the dealing of the ox

Our honest neighbours come by flocks,
And here they will be merry.

Then wherefore in these merry days
Should we, I pray, be duller?

1 There was a rural custom in olden time, among the youths, of hunting

owls and squirrels on Christmas day.

2 No information can be gained of the nature of this sport.

3 The old Christmas money-box was made of earthenware, and required

to be broken in order to get at the money it contained.

No,

A Christmas Carol.

No, let us sing some roundelays,

To make our mirth the fuller.

And whilst thus inspir'd we sing, Let all the streets with echoes ring, Woods and hills and everything Bear witness we are merry.

Old Carol, by George Wither, 1622.

M

Y Lilla gave me yestermorn

A rose, methinks in Eden born,
And as she gave it, little elf!

She blush'd like any rose herself.
Then said I, full of tenderness,

"Since this sweet rose I owe to you,

Dear girl, why may I not possess

The lovelier Rose that gave it too?"

Unknown.

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Nocturne.

She smiles on her white-rose lover,
She reaches out her hand

And helps him in at the window-
I see it where I stand!

To her scarlet lips she holds him,
And kisses him many a time-
Ah, me! it was he that won her
Because he dared to climb!

Thomas Bailey Aldrich.

A

¶ Spectator Ab Extra.

SI sat at the café, I said to myself,

They may talk as they please about what they call pelf,

They may sneer as they like about eating and drink

ing,

But help it, I cannot, I cannot help thinking

How pleasant it is to have money, heigh-ho!
How pleasant it is to have money.

I sit at my table en grand seigneur,

And when I have done, throw a crust to the poor;
Not only the pleasure itself of good living,
But also the pleasure of now and then giving:
So pleasant it is to have money, heigh-ho!
So pleasant it is to have money.

They may talk as they please about what they call

pelf,

And how one ought never to think of one's self,

6

73

How

74

Spectator Ab Extra.

How pleasures of thought surpass eating and drinking, My pleasure of thought is the pleasure of thinking How pleasant it is to have money, heigh-ho! How pleasant it is to have money.

LE DINER.

Come along, 'tis the time, ten or more minutes past,
And he who came first had to wait for the last;
The oysters ere this had been in and been out;
While I have been sitting and thinking about

How pleasant it is to have money, heigh-ho!
How pleasant it is to have money.

A clear soup with eggs: voila tout; of the fish
The filets de sole are a moderate dish

À la Orly, but you're for red mullet, you say:
By the gods of good fare, who can question to-day
How pleasant it is to have money, heigh-ho!
How pleasant it is to have money.

After oysters, sauterne; then sherry; champagne,
Ere one bottle goes, comes another again;
Fly up, thou bold cork, to the ceiling above,
And tell to our ears in the sound that we love

How pleasant it is to have money, heigh-ho!
How pleasant it is to have money.

I've the simplest of palates; absurd it may be,
But I almost could dine on a poulet-au-riz,

Fish and soup and omelette and that, but the

deuce

There