On Friday--I am in the law--
But, ere I started with my mates
On Saturday, 'twas sure to thaw!
Now, too--the prospect seemed divine--
They skated yesterday, I knew,
And now, just as I'm going to dine,
The sun comes out, the skies grow blue,
Ere we at Wimbledon can meet,
Those horrid gaps!--that treacherous sludge!
I shall not get one skimmer fleet.
After my long and sloppy trudge.
No go! One more lost Saturday!
To skating's joys I'm still a stranger.
I sit and curse the melting ray,
In which my hopes all melt away--
It means soft ice, chill slop, and--"Danger!!!"

* * * * *

ESSENCE OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS.

EXTRACTED FROM THE TRANSLATION OF TOBY, M.P.

(THE THOUSAND-AND-TWOTH NIGHT.)

[Illustration: L60/310-1: Illuminated 'M']

"_Mon frere_" said DINARZADE JACQUES MORLEY to SCHEHERAZADE HARCOURT,
"_si vous ne dormiez pas, je vous supplie, en attendant le jour, qui
paraitra bientot, de me raconter un de ces beaux contes que vous
savez._"

"Certainly, my dear JACK," said SCHEHERAZADE.

Now DINARZADE did not like this flippant tone of address. He was, as
has been recorded by SHAHSTEAD (a gentleman of whose patronage he is
proud) not a man you may take liberties with. For SCHEHERAZADE, taking
mean advantage of a French agglomeration of letters which did not
represent his name, to hail him as "JACK" was characteristic, and
therefore undesirable. But, as everybody knows, DINARZADE, at the
approach of each successive morning, was obliged to make this appeal
to his brother, in order to circumvent the bloodthirsty designs of the
Sultan (for particulars of which, see original). So he dissembled his
anger, and SCHEHERAZADE proceeded to tell the History of the Second
Old Man, and the Black Dog.

"Sire," he said, "whilst the Merchant and the First Old Man, who
conducted the hind, went their way, there arrived another Old Man, who
led a black dog, and who forthwith proceeded to relate his history.
'We were, you know,' he remarked, leaning wearily on his staff, 'two
brothers, this dog that you see, and myself. In early life we were not
tied by those bonds of affection that should exist in family circles.
In fact, on one occasion, I had to put my brother in prison. He had
not at that period assumed the four-footed condition in which you now
behold him. He walked about on two legs, like the rest of us, ate and
drank, made love, and made merry. Af