e applied to many of the poems, but we
must leave the congenial task to the Laureate.

* * * * *

A SONNET OF VAIN DESIRE.

AFTER THE HOLIDAYS.

As when th' industrious windmill vainly yearns
To pause, and scratch its swallow-haunted head,
Yet at the wind's relentless urging turns
Its flying arms in wild appeal outspread;
So am I vex'd by vain desire, that burns
These barren places whence the hair hath fled,
To wander far amid the woodland ferns,
Where dewdrops shine along the gossamer thread;
Where its own sunlight on the reddening leaf
Sleeps, when soft mists have swathed the sunless tree,

Or where the innumerous billows merrily dance;
Yet must I busily dissemble grief
Whirl'd in the pitiless round of circumstance,
Rigid with trained respectability.

* * * * *

New Way out of a Wager.

DESMOND, Theosophist Colonel, now thinks better
Of his rash vow his gift to "demonstrate,"
Receiving a "precipitated letter"
Warning him not to be--precipitate.
Many a Betting Man who'd hedge or tack
Must wish he had Mahatmas at _his_ back.

* * * * *

The Beggar's Petition.

(_New Version._)

Life must not be lost, Sir, with lightness,
To _labour_ for life gives me pain;
My exchequer's affected with tightness,
But begging's the pink of politeness,
Like Scribes, Sir, "I beg--to _remain!_" *

* And didn't CHARLES LAMB, in his most delightful essay _On the
Decay of Beggars_, deplore their gradual disappearance?

* * * * *

DOCTOR LAURIE.

_Song by a Scotch Student_. AIR--"_Annie Laurie_."

["According to Dr. LAURIE, of Edinburgh University, the "teaching of Greek,
so far as it is attempted in our secondary schools, is positively
harmful."--_Daily News._]

Pedagogue brays are bonnie,
When Greek they'd fain taboo;
And 'tis here that Doctor LAURIE
Gi'es utterance strictly true,
Gi'es utterance strictly true,
Which ne'er forgot should be,
And for bonnie Doctor LAURIE,
A Scottish boy would dee.

Auld HOMER is a humbug,
ANACREON is an ass;
Sumphs scrape enoo o' baith o' them,
The "Little-go" to pass,
The Little-go to pass--
It affects them "harmfullee."
Ah! but bonnie Doctor LAURIE,
He kens Greek's a' my ee!

Like diplomas fause and lying,
Ar