You couldn't have wanted it much," said Alice; "living at the bottom of the sea."

'I couldn't afford to learn it," said the Mock Turtle, with a sigh. "I only took the regular course."

66

What was that?" inquired Alice.

Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with," the Mock Turtle replied; "and the different branches of Arithmetic Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision. There was Mystery Mystery ancient and modern, with Seaography: then Drawling the Drawling-master was an old conger-eel, that used to come once a week he taught us Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in coils."

"Well, I can't show it you, myself," the Mock Turtle said: "I'm too stiff. And the Gryphon never learnt it." And how many hours a day did you do lessons? said Alice.

"Ten hours the first day," said the Mock Turtle, “nine the next, and so on."

"What a curious plan!" exclaimed Alice.

"That's the reason they're called lessons," the Gryphon remarked; because they lessen from day to day." -Alice in Wonderland.

THE WALRUS AND THE CARPENTER.

The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might;

He did his very best to make

The billows smooth and bright —
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.

The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky;
No birds were flying overhead
There were no birds to fly.

The Walrus and the Carpenter

Were walking close at hand; They wept like anything to see Such quantities of sand

"If this were only cleared away,"

66

They said, "it would be grand!"

"O Oysters, come and walk with us!" The Walrus did beseech.

"A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along the briny beach:

We cannot do with more than four,
To give a hand to each."

But four young Oysters hurried up,

All eager for the treat;

There coats were brushed, their faces washed,

Their shoes were clean and neat

And this was odd, because, you know,

They hadn't any feet.

Four other Oysters followed them,

And yet another four;

And thick and fast they came at last,

And more, and more, and more
All hopping through the frothy waves,
And scrambling to the shore.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Walked on a mile or so,
And then they rested on a rock
Conveniently low:

And all the little Oysters stood
And waited in a row.

"A loaf of bread," the Walrus said,
"Is what we chiefly need:
Pepper and vinegar besides
Are very good indeed

Now, if you're ready, Oysters dear,
We can begin to feed."

66

But not on us!" the Oysters cried,
Turning a little blue.

After such kindness, that would be
A dismal thing to do!"

"The night is fine," the Walrus said.
66 Do you admire the view?

D

ODSLEY, ROBERT, an English dramatist; born

at Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, 1703; died at Durham, September 25, 1764. His father was a schoolmaster and apprenticed the boy to a Nottingham stocking weaver. The work assigned him was distasteful, and he ran away and took service as a

footman in the family of the Hon. Mrs. Lowther. In 1732 he published a little volume of poems entitled The Muse in Livery, and soon after wrote The Toy Shop, a dramatic piece which was acted at the Covent Garden Theatre in 1735. Aided by Pope and others, he opened a bookseller's shop in London, an enterprise which was very successful, and he became the leading publisher of his day, and was on intimate terms with the principal British authors. He established several periodicals, including The Museum; The World and The Perceptor, and in 1758 started The Annual Register, of which Edmund Burke was first editor, and which has been published ever since. Among the contributors to his periodicals were Horace Walpole, Akenside, Soame Jenyns, Lord Lyttleton, and Lord Chesterfield. One of his principal literary enterprises was the Select Collection of Old English Plays (12 vols., 12mo, 1744), which has been several times republished, with considerable additions; the latest edition (1876) being edited by W. C. Hazlitt, and consisting of fifteen volumes. In 1738 he gave Samuel Johnson ten guineas for the manuscript of London, and was afterward the leader of an association of booksellers that furnished Johnson with funds for the preparation of his English Dictionary. In 1737 he produced a drama, The King and the Miller of Mansfield, which was well received; Cleone, a tragedy, was received with even greater enthusiasm. than his earlier efforts. It had a long run at Covent Garden. Two thousand copies of it were sold on the day of publication, and it passed through three editions within a year. Dodsley is now chiefly remembered, aside from his fame as a publisher, through his Select Collection of Old Plays. He wrote several dramas

and other works, which were collected in 1745 under the title of Miscellanies, or Trifles in Prose and Verse. His Poems are included in Chalmers's Collection of British Poets.

THE PARTING KISS.

One kind wish before we part,
Drop a tear and bid adieu:
Though we sever, my fond heart,
Till we meet, shall pant for you.

Yet, weep not so, my love,

Let me kiss that falling tear;
Though my body must remove,
All my soul will still be here.

All my soul and all my heart,
And every wish shall pant for you;
One kind kiss, then, ere we part,
Drop a tear, and bid adieu.

OLE, NATHAN HASKELL, an American translator, editor and essayist; born at Chelsea, Mass., August 31, 1852. He was graduated from Harvard in 1874, and then became literary editor of the Philadelphia Press. He later devoted himself to literature. He has written Young Folk's History of Russia (1881); A Score of Famous Composers (1883); Not Angels Quite (1885); On the Point (1894); The Hawthorn Tree (1895); Mistakes We Make (1898); and Omar, the Tent Maker (1899). In 1899 he edited the complete works of Count Leo Tolstoi, whose novel Anna Karénina and War and Peace,