In gilded halls some take their ease,
In song and dance they find delight;
And there are those whom banquets please,
And masques and revelry by night.
Such gauds are wearisome to me;
And wilder lures of dice or drink
Attract me not; my maddest glee
Is to sit still and think.

I think and think; the world grows less,
And Budgets seem but worthless toys;
For I am lost in happiness,
In my ecstatic joy of joys.
Ah, Mr. ROGERS, blessed name,
Let me think on till all is blue,
For pow'r is naught, nor wealth, nor fame,
Compared with thoughts of you.

* * * * *

THE TRAVELLING COMPANIONS.

NO. XX.

SCENE--_The interior of a covered gondola, which is conveying
CULCHARD and PODBURY from the Railway Station to the Hotel
Dandolo, Venice. The gondola is gliding with a gentle sidelong
heave under shadowy bridges of stone and cast-iron, round
sharp corners, and past mysterious blank walls, and old