"Sir, did you tell?" (relating the affair). But, by-the-bye, 'twas two black crows-not three." "Resolved to trace so wond'rous an event, "Sir,"—and so forth-"Why, yes, the thing is fact It was not two black crows, 'twas only one; "Where may I find him ?" "Why in,-"(such a place) Away he goes, 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 ; "Bless me! how people propagate a lie! "Not I." Black crows have been thrown up, three, two, and one; I did throw up, and told my neighbours so, "Hey! zounds! what's this? a haunch at Drew's ? I must drop in ; I can't refuse: To pass were downright treason: To cut Ned Benson's not quite staunch; But the provocative-a haunch! Zounds! it's the first this season. "You see your dinner, Tom," Drew cried. "It smoked below." "What!" Venison-- "Your neighbor! who?" 'George Benson." NE of the King's of Scanderoon, a Royal Jester, had in his train a gross buf foon, who used to pester the Court with tricks inopportune, venting on the highest folks his scurvy pleasantries and hoaxes. It needs some sense to play the fool, which wholesome rule occurred not to our jackanapes; who consequently found his freaks led to innumerable scrapes, and quite as many kicks and tweaks, which only seemed to make him faster try the patience of his master. Some sin, at last, beyond all measure, incurred the desperate displeasure of his serene and raging Highness: whether he twitched his most revered and sacred beard, or had intruded on the quietness of the studio, or let fly an epigram at royalty, none knows:-his sin was an occult one; but records tell us that the Sultan, meaning to terrify the knave, exclaimed-" Tis time to stop that breath: thy doom is sealed :—presumptuous slave! thou stand'st condemned to certain death. Silence, base rebel !—no replying!--but such is my indulgence still, that, of my own free grace and will, I leave to thee the mode of dying." 66 Thy royal will be done-'tis just," replied the wretch, and kissed the dust; "since, my last moments to assuage, your Majesty's humane decree has deigned to leave the choice to me, I'll die, so please you, of old age." Aw XXIII.—THE WELL OF ST. KEYNE. WELL there is in the west country, and a clearer one never was seen, there is not a wife in the west country, but has heard of the Well of St. Keyne. An oak and an Elm-tree stand beside, and behind does an ash-tree grow, and a willow from the bank above droops to the water below. A traveller came to the Well of St. Keyne; joyfully he drew nigh, for from cock-crow he had been travelling, and there was not a cloud in the sky. He drank of the water so cool and clear, for thirsty and hot. was he: and he sat down upon the bank, under the willow-tree. There came a man from the neighboring town, at the Well to fill his pail; on the Well-side he rested it, and he bade the stranger hail. "Now, art thou a bachelor, stranger ?" quoth he, "for, an' if thou hast a wife, the happiest draught thou hast drunk this day, that ever thou didst in thy life. Or has thy good woman -if one thou hast-ever here in Cornwall been? for, 'an if she have, I'll venture my life she has drunk of the well of St. Keyne.” "I have left a good woman who never was here," the stranger he made reply; "but that my draught should be better for that, I pray you answer me why." "St. Keyne," quoth the Cornishman, “many a time drank of this crystal well, and before the angel summoned her, she laid on the water a spell: If the husband, of this gifted Well shall drink before his wife, a happy man henceforth is he, for he shall be master for life. But if the wife should drink of it first,—heaven help the husband then!"—The stranger stooped to the Well of St. Keyne, and drank of the water again. "You drank of the Well, I warrant, betimes ?" he to the Cornish-man said: but the Cornish-man smiled as the stranger spake, and sheepishly shook his head. "I hastened as soon as the wedding was done, and left my wife in the porch: but i'faith! she had been wiser than I, for she took a bottle to church." XXIV.-NOSE AND EYES. COWPER. BETWEEN Nose and Eyes a strange contest arose, The spectacles set them unhappily wrong: So Tongue was the lawyer, and argued the cause 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 had spectacles always in wear Which amounts to pessession, time out of mind. “ Then, holding the spectacles up to the court, 'Your lordship observes, they are made with a straddle "Again, would your lordship a moment suppose '('Tis a case that has happen'd, and may be again) "That the visage or countenance had not a Nose, "Pray who would, or who could, wear spectacles then. "On the whole it appears, and my argument shows, Then shifting his side, (as a lawyer knows how,) For the court did not think they were equally wise. So his lordship decreed, with a grave solemn tone, THE boy stood on the back-yard fence, whence all but him had fled; And scraps of clothes, and balls, and tops, and nails, and hooks, and yarn- |