I. ACT I. SCENE I. ". . . At first, the Infant." WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. As You Like It, Act II. Sc. 7. INTO this world we come like ships, And one little craft is cast away In its very first trip in Babbicombe Bay, What different lots our stars accord! This babe to be hail'd and woo'd as a Lord! To its vinegar, only, and pepper. One is litter'd under a roof Neither wind nor water proof That's the prose of Love in a Cottage A puny, naked, shivering wretch, The whole of whose birthright would not fetch, Though Robins himself drew up the sketch, The bid of "a mess of pottage." Born of Fortunatus's kin, Another comes tenderly usher'd in To a prospect all bright and burnish'd; No tenant he for life's back slums He comes to the world, as a gentleman comes To a lodging ready furnish'd. THOMAS HOOD. Poetical Works. (Ward, Lock, and Co.) [By kind permission of the Publishers.] A BABE in a house is a well-spring of pleasure, a messenger of peace and love : A resting-place for innocence on earth; a link between angels and men: Yet is it a talent of trust, a loan to be rendered back with interest; A delight, but redolent of care; honey-sweet, but lacking not the bitter. For character groweth day by day, and all things aid it in unfolding, And the bent unto good or evil may be given in the hours of infancy : Scratch the green rind of a sapling, or wantonly twist it in the soil, The scarred and crooked oak will tell of thee for centuries to come; Even so mayst thou guide the mind to good, or lead it to the marrings of evil, For disposition is builded up by the fashioning of first impressions: Wherefore, though the voice of Instruction waiteth for the ear of reason, Yet with his mother's milk the young child drinketh Education. Patience is the first great lesson; he may learn it at the breast: And the habit of obedience and trust may be grafted on his mind in the cradle; Hold the little hands in prayer, teach the weak knees their kneeling ; Let him see thee speaking to thy God; he will not forget it afterward; When old and grey will he feelingly remember a mother's tender piety, And the touching recollection of her prayers shall arrest the strong man in his sin. MARTIN F. TUPPER. Proverbial Philosophy. (Ward, Lock, and Co.) FOUR years I've wed; not one has passed in vain ; GEORGE CRABBE. MY FIRST-BORN. "HE shan't be their namesake, the rather "Yes, Ben, though it cost him a portion I scorn such baptismal extortion (That creaking of boots must be Squills). "It is clear, though his means may be narrow, This infant his Age will adorn; I shall send him to Oxford from Harrow,- Below, 'twas a labour of love, More practical labour above; Invented and nursed by herself; Except for the name and the gender, She's almost as tranquil as Squills. That father, in reverie centred, Dumfounder'd, his thoughts in a whirl, Heard Squills, as the creaking boots enter'd, Announce that his Boy was-a Girl. FREDERICK LOCKER. London Lyrics. (K. Paul.) MOTHER, on my returning home I put the wonder back to Jane, With her small friend of many a moɔn. But when the new-made Mother smiled, She seem'd herself a little child, Dwelling at large beyond the law By which, till then, I judged and saw, And that fond glow which she felt stir For it, suffused my heart for her; To whom, from the weak babe, and thence Came, and she was indeed my wife, Of touch, the childish sense of love, Its strange possession, and to know COVENTRY PATMORE. BABY BELL. [EXTRACT.] SHE came and brought delicious May, |