swell to make up what you call the bell.'" Awhile she paused, my bright Louise, and ponder'd on the case; then, settling that he meant to tease, she slapp'd her father's face : “You bad old man to sit and tell such gibberybosh about a bell! The True Story of Little Boy Blue. Little Boy Blue, so the story goes, One morning while reading fell fast asleep, All of you children remember what Came of the nap on that summer morn; Neglecting a duty is wrong, of course, But I've always felt, if we could but know, I find, in my sifting, that there was one The one to blame I have found to be, Well, Little Bo-Peep came tripping along, Faithfully minding his charge. Said Little Bo-Peep, "It's a burning shame It was dull work, and he liked to play He liked the bloom of the summer day; And so, with many a laugh and shout, They hid from each other-now here, now there; And whether the cows were in or out Bo-Peep had never a care. "I will hide once more," said the little maid, "Now, wait till I call," said Miss Bo-Peep, And long and patiently waited he For the blithesome call from her rosy lip. She let down the bars, did Miss Bo-Peep- To tell the story from shore to shore, From sea to sea, and from sun to sun, Because, as I think I said before, I like to see justice done. And whatever you've read or seen or heard, Believe me, children, I tell the true And only genuine (take my word) Story of Little Boy Blue. Our Village. Our village, that's to say not Miss Mitford's village, but our village of Bullock Smithy, Is come into by an avenue of trees, three oak pollards, two elders, and a withy; And in the middle, there's a green of about not exceeding an acre and a half; It's common to all, and fed off by nineteen cows, six ponies, three horses, five asses, two foals, seven pigs, and a calf! Besides a pond in the middle, as is held by a similar sort of common law lease, And contains twenty ducks, six drakes, three ganders, two dead dogs, four drown'd kittens, and twelve geese. Of course the green's cropt very close, and does famous for bowling when the little village boys play at cricket; Only some horse, or pig, or cow, or great jackass is sure to come and stand right before the wicket. There's fifty-five private houses, let alone barns and workshops, and pig-sties, and poultry huts, and such-like sheds ; With plenty of public-houses-two Foxes, one Green Man, three Bunch of Grapes, one Crown, and six King's Heads. The Green Man is reckon'd the best, as the only one that for love or money can raise A postillion, a blue jacket, two deplorable lame white horses, and a ramshackled "neat post-chaise." There's one parish church for all the people, whatsoever may be their ranks in life or their degrees, Except one very damp, small, dark, freezing-cold little Methodist chapel of Ease ; And close by the church-yard, there's a stone-mason's yard, that when the time is seasonable Will furnish with afflictions sore and marble urns and cherubims very low and reasonable. There's a cage, comfortable enough; I've been in it with Old Jack Jeffrey and Tom Pike; For the Green Man next door will send you in ale, gin, or any thing else you like. I can't speak of the stocks, as nothing remains of them but the upright post; But the pound is kept in repairs for the sake of Cob's horse, as is always there almost. There's a smithy of course, where that queer sort of a chap in his way, Old Joe Bradley, Perpetually hammers and stammers, for he stutters and shoes horses very badly. There's a shop of all sorts, that sells every thing, kept by the widow of Mr. Task ; But when you go there it's ten to one she's out of every thing you ask. You'll know her house by the swarm of boys, like flies, about the old sugary cask. There are six empty houses, and not so well papered inside as out, For bill-stickers won't beware, but sticks notices of sales and election placards all about. That's the Doctor's with a green door, where the garden pots in the windows is seen; A weakly monthly rose that don't blow, and a dead geranium, and a tea-plant with five black leaves and one green. As for hollyoaks at the cottage doors, and honeysuckles and jasmines, you may go and whistle; But the Tailor's front gardens grow two cabbages, a dock, a ha'porth of pennyroyal, two dandelions, and a thistle. There are three small orchards-Mr. Busby's the schoolmaster's is the chief With two pear-trees that don't bear; one plum and an apple, that every year is stripped by a thief. There's another small day-school, too, kept by the respectable Mrs. Gaby; A select establishment, for six little boys and one big, and four little girls and a baby. There's a rectory, with pointed gables and strange odd chimneys that never smokes, For the rector don't live on his living like other Christian sort of folks; There's a barber's, once a-week well filled with rough blackbearded shock-headed churls, And a window with two feminine men's heads, and two masculine ladies in false curls; There's a butcher's and a carpenter's and a plumber's and a small green-grocer's, and a baker, But he won't bake on a Sunday, and there's a sexton that's a coal-merchant besides, and an undertaker ; And a toy-shop, but not a whole one, for a village can't compare with the London shops; One window sells drums, dolls, kites, carts, bats, Clout's balls, and the other sells malt and hops. And Mrs. Brown, in domestic economy not to be a bit behind her betters, Lets her house to a milliner, a watchmaker, a rat-catcher, a cobbler, lives in it herself, and it's the post-office for letters. Now I've gone through all the village-ay, from end to end, save and except one more house, But I haven't come to that-and I hope I never shall—and that's the Village Poor-House ! The Owl Critic. (Verse printed as Prose.) "Who stuffed that white owl?" No one spoke in the shop! the barber was busy, and he couldn't stop! the customers, waiting their turns, were all reading the Daily, the Herald, the Post, little heeding the young man who blurted out such a blunt question; not one raised a head or even made a suggestion; and the barber kept on shaving.-"Don't you see, Mister Brown," cried the youth with a frown, "how wrong the whole thing is, how preposterous each wing is, how flattened the head is, how jammed down the neck is—in short, the whole owl, what an ignorant wreck 'tis! I make no apology, I've learned owleology, I've passed days and nights in a hundred collections, and cannot be blinded to any deflections arising from unskilful fingers that fail to stuff a bird right, from his beak to his tail. Mister Brown! Mister Brown! Do take that bird down, or you'll soon be the laughing-stock all over town!" And the barber kept on shaving." I've studied owls, and other night fowls, and I tell you what I know to be true; an owl cannot roost with his limbs so unloosed. owl in this world ever had his claws curled, ever had his legs slanted, ever had his bill canted, ever had his neck screwed Νο |