And when before your eyes I've set him,
If you don't find him black, I'll eat him."
He said; then full before their sight
Produced the beast, and lo!-'twas white.

Merrick.

How-D'ye-Do, and Good-Bye.

ONE day Good-bye met How-d'ye-do,
Too close to shun saluting;
But soon the rival sisters flew

From kissing to disputing.

Away!" says How-d'ye-do, "your mien
Appals my cheerful nature;

No name so sad as yours is seen

In sorrow's nomenclature.

Where'er I give one sunshine hour,
Your cloud comes in to shade it;
Where'er I plant one bosom's flower,
Your mildew drop to fade it.

Ere How-d'ye-do has tuned each tongue
To hope's delighted measure,'
Good-bye in friendship's ear has rung
The knell of parting pleasure!

From sorrows past, my chemic skill
Draws smiles of consolation;
While you, from present joys, distil
The tears of separation."

Good-bye replied, "Your statement's true,
And well your cause you've pleaded;
But, pray, who'd think of How-d'ye-do,
Unless Good-bye preceded!

"Without my prior influence,

Could yours have ever flourish'd? And can your hand one flower dispense, But those my tears have nourish'd?

"How oft,-if at the court of love

Concealment is the fashion,

When How-d'ye-do has fail'd to move,
Good-bye reveals the passion?

A

"How oft, when Cupid's fires decline,-
As every heart remembers,
One sigh of mine, and only mine,
Revives the dying embers?

Go, bid the timid lover choose,
And I'll resign my charter,
If he for ten kind How-d'ye-do's,
One kind Good-bye would barter!
"From love and friendship's kindred source
We both derive existence;

And they would both lose half their force
Without one joint assistance.

"Tis well the world our merit knows,
Since time, there's no denying,
One half in How-d'ye-doing goes,
And other in Good-bying."

The Three Black Crows.

Two honest tradesmen, meeting in the Strand,
One took the other briskly by the hand;

Hark ye," said he, “ 'tis an odd story this

About the crows!"- I don't know what it is,"

"

Anonymous.

Replied his friend."No! I'm surprised at that;
Where I come from, it is the common chat;
But you shall hear an odd affair indeed!
And that it happen'd they are all agreed:
Not to detain you from a thing so strange,
A gentleman, who lives not far from 'Change,
This week, in short, as all the Alley knows,
Taking a vomit, threw up Three Black Crows!"
"Impossible!""Nay, but 'tis really true;

I had it from good hands, and so may you."

From whose I pray? -So, having named the man, Straight to inquire, his curious comrade ran. "Sir, did you tell?"relating the affair. "Yes, sir, I did; and, if 'tis worth your care, "Twas Mr."-such a one-" who told it me;

But, by the bye, 'twas Two black crows, not Three!"
Resolved to trace so wondrous an event,

Quick to the third the virtuoso went.

Sir," and so forth.-" Why, yes; the thing is fact, Though in regard to number not exact:

1

It was not Two black crows, 'twas only One;
The truth of that you may depend upon;
The gentleman himself told me the case.

Where may I find him?"-" Why, in"-such a place. Away he went, and having found him out,

Sir, be so good as to resolve a doubt."

Then to his last informant he referr'd,

And begg'd to know, if true what he had heard:

66

Did you, sir, throw up a black crow?"-" Not I!".
Bless me!--how people propagate a lie!

Black crows have been thrown up, Three, Two, and One;
And here, I find, all comes at last to None!
Did you say nothing of a crow at all?"-
"Crow-crow-perhaps I might; now I recall
The matter over."- And pray, sir, what was't?"
"Why, I was horrid sick, and at the last

66.

I did throw up, and told my neighbour so,
Something that was-

-as black, sir, as a crow.

Dr. Byrom.

I

Queen Mab.

OH! then, I see Queen Mab has been with you.
She is the fancy's midwife: and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the forefinger of an alderman;
Drawn, by a team of little atom.ies,
Athwart men's noses, as they lie asleep:

Her waggon-spokes, made of long spinners' legs;
The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers;
The traces, of the smallest spiders' web;
The collars, of the moonshine's watery beams;
Her whip, of cricket's bone; the lash, of film;
Her waggoner, a small grey-coated gnat;
Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut,
Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,
Time out of mind the fairies' coach-makers.

And, in this state, she gallops, night by night,
Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love;
O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream of fees;
O'er courtiers' knees, who dream on courtesies straight;
O'er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream:
Sometimes she driveth o'er a lawyer's nose,
And then he dreams of smelling out a suit:

'How oft, when Cupid's fires decline,
As every heart remembers,-
One sigh of mine, and only mine,
Revives the dying embers?
"Go, bid the timid lover choose,
And I'll resign my charter,
If he for ten kind How-d'ye-do's,
One kind Good-bye would barter!
"From love and friendship's kindred source
We both derive existence;

And they would both lose half their force
Without one joint assistance.

""Tis well the world our merit knows,
Since time, there's no denying,
One half in How-d'ye-doing goes,
And other in Good-bying."

The Three Black Crows.

Two honest tradesmen, meeting in the Strand,
One took the other briskly by the hand;

Hark ye," said he, " 'tis an odd story this

About the crows!'

Replied his friend.

Anonymous.

I don't know what it is,"
"No! I'm surprised at that;
Where I come from, it is the common chat;
But you shall hear an odd affair indeed!
And that it happen'd they are all agreed:
Not to detain you from a thing so strange,
A gentleman, who lives not far from 'Change,
This week, in short, as all the Alley knows,
Taking a vomit, threw up Three Black Crows!"
"Impossible!"" Nay, but 'tis really true;

I had it from good hands, and so may you."

66

From whose I pray?"So, having named the man, Straight to inquire, his curious comrade ran.

Sir, did you tell?"- -relating the affair.

“Yes, sir, I did; and, if 'tis worth your care,
"Twas Mr."-such a one- who told it me;

But, by the bye, 'twas Two black crows, not Three!"
Resolved to trace so wondrous an event,

Quick to the third the virtuoso went.

Sir," and so forth." Why, yes; the thing is fact, Though in regard to number not exact:

It was not Two black crows, 'twas only One;'
The truth of that you may depend upon;

The gentleman himself told me the case."

Where may I find him?"-" Why, in"-such a place. Away he went, and having found him out,

Sir, be so good as to resolve a doubt."

Then to his last informant he referr'd,

And begged to know, if true what he had heard:
Did you, sir, throw up a black crow?"-" Not I!"-
Bless me!--how people propagate a lie!

66

Black crows have been thrown up, Three, Two, and One; And here, I find, all comes at last to None!

Did you say nothing of a crow at all?"

'Crow-crow-perhaps I might; now I recall
The matter over."-"And pray, sir, what was't?”
“Why, I was horrid sick, and at the last

I did throw up, and told my neighbour so,
Something that was—as black, sir, as a crow.'

Queen Mab.

Dr. Byrom.

OH! then, I see Queen Mab has been with you.
She is the fancy's midwife: and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the forefinger of an alderman;
Drawn, by a team of little atom.ies,
Athwart men's noses, as they lie asleep:

Her waggon-spokes, made of long spinners' legs;
The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers;
The traces, of the smallest spiders' web;
The collars, of the moonshine's watery beams;
Her whip, of cricket's bone; the lash, of film;
Her waggoner, a small grey-coated gnat;
Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut,
Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,
Time out of mind the fairies' coach-makers.

And, in this state, she gallops, night by night,
Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love;
O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream of fees;
O'er courtiers' knees, who dream on courtesies straight;
O'er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream:
Sometimes she driveth o'er a lawyer's nose,
And then he dreams of smelling out a suit: