And then--well, Lord knows what may happen _then_,
Unless--unless--and that is most improbable--
Ratepayers rise _together_--show they're men,
And not mere sheep gregarious, warm-fleeced, robbable.
Meanwhile the Vestry Vultures gorge their fill,
And I am warned--by friends--"_Don't put their backs up!_"
_Their_ backs! And we sing "_Rule Britannia_" still!!
Will _no one_ chaw these fine official Jacks up?

* * * * *

THE KREUTZER SONATA.

One _Pozdnisheff_ by name
Played the matrimonial game;
Pleased by a little curl,
Which round his heart did twirl,
And taken by a jersey
(Exported from the Mersey);
He felt, poor man, half-witted
When he saw how well it fitted!

The mother, with her jersey-clad young daughter,
Asked the lover to a party on the water.
Soft things he now could say
To the maiden all the way,
Till she caught him--who imagined he had caught her!

Now there came a young musician, _Troukachevsky_,
Who, at Petersburg, resided on the Nevsky;