HE TRAVELS ALL OVER ENGLAND IN SEARCH OF A BACKGROUND FOR HIS "_VIVIAN
BEGUILING MERLIN IN THE FOREST OF BROCELIANDE_,"--A HOPELESS QUEST!]

* * * * *

BOGEY OR BENEFACTOR?

_Timid Ratepayer loquitur:--_

O lor! O dear! What have we here? What a nondescript, huge
NID-NODDY!
None know, I'm sure, what _I_ have to endure. It's enough to
frighten a body!
They are always up to some queer new game, and a giving me some
fresh master;
But this one is a _crux_ from the sole of his foot to the crown of
his comical castor.

He looks as big as all out-of-doors, and e'en BUMBLE was hardly as
bumptious.
He'd make my London a Paradise, which is a prospect that's
perfectly scrumptious.
But oh! he _is_ big, with the funniest rig; a Titan who, if he
_should_ tumble,
Might squelch me as flat as an opera-hat, and make me regret old
BUMBLE.

Noodledom ruled me for many long years; this means, I am told, a
new Era;