there will be plenty of China ASTORS among us.

* * * * *

THE POEMS OF THE CRADLE.

CANTO II.

"Hey! Diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle
The cow jumped over the moon.
The little dog laughed to see the sport,
And the dish ran after the spoon."

These were the classic expressions of the hilarious poet of a period far
back in the vista of ages. How vividly they portray the exalted state of
his mind; and how impressed the public must have been at the time; for
did not the words become popular immediately, and have they not so
continued to the present day?

Every mother immediately seized upon the verse, and, setting it to music
of her own, sang it as a cradle song to soothe the troubles of
infanthood, and repeated it in great glee to the intelligent babe when
in a crowing mood, as the poem most fitted for the infant's brain to
comprehend.

Papa, anxious to watch the unfolding of the human mind, and its gradual
development, would take the baby-prodigy in his arms, and with keen
glance directed upon its face, repeat, in thrilling tones, the sublime
words. With what joy would he remark and comment upon any gleam of
intelligence, and again and again would he recite, in an impressive