The Butler Bibulus heard it;

And straightway ceased to snore,

And sat up, like an egg on end,

While men might count a score:

Then spake he to Tigerius,

66

A Buttons bold was he:

Buttons, I think there's thieves about;

Just strike a light and tumble out;

If you can't find one, go without,

And see what you may see."

But now was all the household,

Almost, upon its legs,

Each treading carefully about

As if they trod on eggs.

With robe far-streaming issued

Paterfamilias forth;

And close behind him,-stout and true

And tender as the North,

Came Mrs. P., supporting

On her broad arm her fourth.

Betsy the nurse, who never

From largest beetle ran,

And-conscious p'raps of pleasing caps

The housemaids, formed the van:

And Bibulus the Butler,

His calm brows slightly arched;

(No mortal wight had ere that night

Seen him with shirt unstarched ;)

And Bob, the shockhaired knifeboy,

Wielding two Sheffield blades,

And James Plush of the sinewy legs,

The love of lady's maids:

And charwoman and chaplain

Stood mingled in a mass,

And "Things," thought he of Houndsditch,

"Is come to a pretty pass."

Beyond all things a Baby

Is to the schoolgirl dear;

Next to herself the nursemaid loves

Her dashing grenadier;

Only with life the sailor

Parts from the British flag;

While one hope lingers, the cracksman's fingers

Drop not his hard-earned 'swag.'

But, as hares do my second

Thro' green Calabria's copses,

As females vanish at the sight
Of short-horns and of wopses;

So, dropping forks and teaspoons,

They gave him-did the Judges

As much as was his due.

And, Saxon, should'st thou e'er be led

To deem this tale untrue;

Then-any night in winter,

When the cold north wind blows,

And bairns are told to keep out cold

By tallowing the nose:

When round the fire the elders

Are gathered in a bunch,

And the girls are doing crochet,

:

And the boys are reading Punch :

Go thou and look in Leech's book;
There haply shalt thou spy

A stout man on a staircase stand,

With aspect anything but bland,

And rub his right shin with his hand,

To witness if I lie.

PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY.

Introductory.

RT thou beautiful, O my daughter, as the

AR

budding rose of April?

Are all thy motions music, and is poetry throned in

thine eye?

Then hearken unto me; and I will make the bud

a fair flower,

I will plant it upon the bank of Elegance, and water it with the water of Cologne;

And in the season it shall "come out," yea bloom,

the pride of the parterre;

Ladies shall marvel at its beauty, and a Lord shall

pluck it at the last.

H