troubled spirit with the tender melody of "Red as a beet is
she,"--alluding to her would-be rival. The nice young man has his degree
of bliss when he chews a tooth-pick--poor goose! (not the nice young
man, but the fowl which gave the quill,)--and is given a smile by a
dark-eyed female in a passing stage.

And Infantdom has--But our poet beautifully illustrates this in the
stanzas we have quoted.

"Little JACK HORNER,"

says he, with the easy grace of one perfectly familiar with the subject
he is to treat; neither frightened at its immensity, nor putting himself
in the way of a dilemma by stopping to examine details. Little JACK was
the poet's pet because he was the afflicted one of the household, and
poets know full well how to sympathize with affliction. Perhaps JACK sat
down to dinner next to cross-eyed SUSAN ANN, "by Brother BILL'S gal,"
and perhaps JACK'S nose was tickled by a little blue-bottle, and that he
sneezed right into her soup-plate; and then he was hurried from the
table for blowing a fly into SUSAN ANN'S soup! He would lose his dinner.
His napkin would miss its accustomed wash!

"Shall it be thus? No!" says the poet. "Dry your tears, little JACK, go
to the well-stocked pantry, my boy, and get something to eat. The jury
will not convict you of stealing, for their verdict will be that you did
the deed in self-defence." And he did--go to the closet, and--

"Sat in the corner,
Eating a Christmas Pie."