The man who lost his way between St. Mary's Hill and Sandy Thicket, Was always shown across the Green, And guided to the Parson's wicket. Back flew the bolt of lissom lath; Fair Margaret in her tidy kirtle Led the lorn traveler up the path, Through clean-clipt rows of box and myrtle; And Don and Sancho, Tramp and Tray, Upon the parlor-steps collected, Wagged all their tails and seemed to say: "Our master knows you; you're expected." Up rose the Reverend Doctor Brown, Up rose the Doctor's "winsome marrow;" The lady laid her knitting down, Her husband clasped his ponderous barrow Whate'er the stranger's caste or creed, Pundit or papist, saint or sinner, He found a stable for his steed, And welcome for himself and dinner. If, when he reached his journey's end, And twenty curious scraps of knowledge; With no new light on love or liquor, Good sooth the traveler was to blame, And not the Vicarage or the Vicar. His talk was like a stream which runs It passed from Mahomet to Moses; The planets in their radiant courses, And ending with some precept deep For dressing eels or shoeing horses. He was a shrewd and sound divine, He 'stablished truth or startled error, And the lean Levite went to sleep And dreamt of eating pork to-morrow. His sermon never said or showed That earth is foul, that Heaven is gracious, Without refreshment on the road From Jerome or from Athanasius; And sure a righteous zeal inspired The hand and head that penned and planned them, For all who understood admired, And some who did not understand them. He wrote too, in a quiet way, Small treatises and smaller verses, He did not think all mischief fair, He held, in spite of all his learning, It will not be improved by burning. And he was kind and loved to sit In the low hut or garnished cottage, And praise the farmer's homely wit, And share the widow's homelier pottage. At his approach complaint grew mild, And when his hand unbarred the shutter, The clammy lips of fever smiled The welcome that they could not utter. He always had a tale for me Of Julius Cæsar or of Venus; And make the puppy dance a jig When he began to quote Augustine. Alack the change! In vain I look For haunts in which my boyhood trifled; The level lawn, the trickling brook, The trees I climbed, the beds I rifled! The man who wrote the above admirable portrait was as good The next has equal merit : as he was clever. QUINCE. Near a small village in the West, My good friend Quince was lord and master. Welcome was he in hut and hall, To maids and matrons, peers and peasants; By making puns and making presents. He kept his counsel and his carriage, And laughed, and loved a quiet life, And shrunk from chancery-suits and marriage. Sound was his claret and his head, Warm was his double ale and feelings; His partners at the whist-club said That he was faultless in his dealings. He went to church but once a-week, And liked to see his friends around him. Asylums, hospitals and schools He used to swear were made to cozen; It was his doctrine that the poor Some public principles he had, But was no flatterer nor fretter; He rapped his box when things were bad, With, "Patience, gentlemen, and shuffle!" For full ten years his pointer, Speed, They were the ugliest beasts in Devon; Whene'er they heard his ring or knock, Quicker than thought the village slatterns Louisa looked the queen of knitters; But all was vain. And while decay Came like a tranquil moonlight o'er him, And found him gouty still and gay, With no fair nurse to bless or bore him; His rugged smile and easy chair, His dread of matrimonial lectures, His wig, his stick, his powdered hair, Were themes for very strange conjectures. Some sages thought the stars above Had crazed him with excess of knowledge; Did nothing, great or small, without him; Some whispered, with a solemn face, E* I found him at three score and ten To take him from a world of trouble. The next he sent for Dr. Baillie. And so he lived, and so he died; When last I sat beside his pillow While life was flickering in the socket, I'll bring a license in my pocket. "I've left my house and grounds to Fag, To feed him for my sake, or shoot him. She'll find him an uncommon mouser, "Whether I ought to die or not My doctors can not quite determine; And be, like Priam, food for vermin. I can not leave you my direction!" The next poem, which describes a first flirtation (for it hardly deserves the name of first love), is as true as if it had been written in prose by Jane Austen. THE BELLE OF THE BALL. Years, years ago, ere yet my dreams, |