Under his pillow he had placed with care. Sans ceremonie soon the rats all ran, And on the flour-sacks greedily began; At which they gorged themselves; then smelling round, Under the pillow soon the cheese they found, Their happy jaws disturbed the Frenchman's nap; Vat is dat nibble at my pillow so? In vain our little hero sought repose; Bring me the bill for what I have to pay!" Ten shillings was the charge: he scarce believed his eyes. With eager haste, he quickly runs it o'er, And every time he viewed it thought it more. Vare all de rats do run about my head?" scout: I'll pay him well that can." "Vat's dat you say?" "I'll pay him well that can." "Attend to me, I pray: Vill you dis charge forego, vat I am at, If from your house I drive away de rat?" And den invite de rats to sup vid you: And after dat-no matter dey be villing For vat dey eat, you charge dem just ten shelang: John Barleycorn. 'HERE went three kings into the East, T1 Three kings both great and high, And they hae sworn a solemn oath John Barleycorn should die. They took a plow and plowed him down, And they hae sworn a solemn oath, But the cheerful spring came kindly on, John Barleycorn got up again, The sultry suns of summer came, And he grew thick and strong, His head well armed wi' pointed spears, His bending joints and drooping head His color sickened more and more, He faded into age; And then his enemies began To show their deadly rage. They've ta'en a weapon long and sharp, And cut him by the knee; And tied him fast upon the cart, Like a rogue for forgerie. They laid him down upon his back, They laid him out upon the floor, I The Society upon the Stanislaus. RESIDE at Table Mountain, and my name is Truthful James: I am not up to small deceit, or any sinful games; And I'll tell in simple language what I know about the row That broke up our society upon the Stanislow. But first I would remark, that 'tis not a proper plan And, if a member don't agree with his peculiar whim, To lay for that same member for to "put a head on him!" Now, nothing could be finer, or more beautiful to see, Than the first six months' proceedings of that same society; Till Brown of Calaveras brought a lot of fossil bones That he found within a tunnel near the tenement of Jones. Then Brown he read a paper, and he reconstructed there, From those same bones, an animal, that was extremely rare; And Jones then asked the Chair for a suspension of the rules, Till he could prove that those same bones was one of his lost mules. Then Brown he smiled a bitter smile, and said he was at fault; [vault; It seemed he had been trespassing on Jones' family He was a most sarcastic man, this quiet Mr. Brown, And on several occasions he had cleaned out the town. Now I hold it is not decent for a scientific gent A chunk of old red sandstone took him in the abdomen; upon the floor, And the subsequent proceedings interested him no more. For in less time than I write it, every member did engage In a warfare with the remnants of a palæozoic age; And the way they heaved those fossils in their anger was a sin, Till the skull of an old mammoth caved the head of Thompson in. And this is all I have to say of these improper games, For I live at Table Mountain and my name is Truthful James, And I've told in simple language what I know about the row That broke up our society upon the Stanislow. -Bret Harte. B Faithless Nelly Gray. EN BATTLE was a soldier bold, And used to war's alarms; But a cannon ball took off his legs, Now as they bore him off the field, The army surgeons made him limbs; But there's as wooden members quite, As represent my legs." Now Ben he loved a pretty maid- But when he called on Nelly Gray; "O Nelly Gray! O Nelly Gray! Thou'rt welcome to the town; but why come here And thin will be the banquet drawn for me. Look round-the pale-eyed sisters, in my cell, Thy old acquantance, Song and Famine, dwell. Try some plump alderman; and suck the blood Enriched with generous wine, and costly meat; In well-filled skins, soft as thy native mud, Fix thy light pump, and raise thy freckled feet. Go to the men for whom, in ocean's halls, The oyster breeds, and the green turtle sprawls. There corks are drawn, and the red vintage flows, To fill the swelling veins for thee; and now The ruddy cheek, and now the ruddier nose, Shall tempt thee as thou flittest round the brow; And when the hour of sleep its quiet brings, No angry hand shall rise to brush thy wings. -William Cullen Bryant, B The Nose and the Eyes. ETWEEN Nose and Eyes a strange contest arose; The spectacles set them, unhappily, wrong; The point in dispute was, as all the world knows, To whom the said spectacles ought to belong. So Tongue was the lawyer, and argued the cause, With a great deal of skill, and wig full of learning, While chief baron Ear sat to balance the laws So famed for his talent in nicely discerning. "In behalf of the Nose, it will quickly appear (And your lordship," he said, "will undoubtedly find) That the Nose has the spectacles always to wear, Which amounts to possession, time out of mind." Then, holding the spectacles up to the court, "Your lordship observes, they are made with a straddle, As wide as the ridge of the Nose is; in short, Designed to sit close to it, just like a saddle. 'Again, would your lordship a moment suppose ('T is a case that has happened, and may happen again) That the visage or countenance had not a Nose, He pleaded again in behalf of the Eyes; To the Pliocene Skull. A GEOLOGICAL ADDRESS. ["A human skull has been found in California, in the pliocene formation. This skull is the remnant, not only of the earliest pioneer of this State, but the oldest known human being. . . . . The skull was found in a shaft one hundred and fifty feet deep, two miles from Angel's in Calaveras County, by a miner named James Matson, who gave it to Mr. Scribner, a merchant, and he gave it to Dr. Jones, who sent it to the State Geological Survey. . . . . The published volume of the State Survey on the Geology of California states that man existed contemporaneously with the mastodon, but this fossil proves that he was here before the mastodon was known to exist."-Daily Paper] 66 "SPE PEAK, O man, less recent! Fragmentary fossil! Hid in lowest drifts below the earlies stratum Of volcanic tufa! "Older than the beasts, the oldest Palæotherium; |