the profits is on the whole
stronger than the booksellers.

"Rhyme? and Reason?" appeared at Christmas; the dedicatory verses,
inscribed "To a dear child: in memory of golden summer hours and
whispers of a summer sea," were addressed to a little friend of the
author's, Miss Gertrude Chataway. One of the most popular poems in the
book is "Hiawatha's Photographing," a delicious parody of Longfellow's
"Hiawatha." "In an age of imitation," says Lewis Carroll, in a note at
the head, "I can claim no special merit for this slight attempt at
doing what is known to be so easy." It is not every one who has read
this note who has observed that it is really in the same metre as the
poem below it.

Another excellent parody, "Atalanta in Camden-Town," exactly hit off
the style of that poet who stands alone and unapproached among the
poets of the day, and whom Mr. Dodgson used to call "the greatest
living master of language."

"Fame's Penny Trumpet," affectionately dedicated to all "original
researchers" who pant for "endowment," was an attack upon the
Vivisectionists,

Who preach of Justice--plead with tears
That Love and Mercy should abound--
While marking with complacent ears
The moaning of some tortured hound.

Lewis Carroll thus addresses them:--

Fill all the air with hungry wails--
"Reward us, ere we think or write!
Without your gold mere knowledge fails
To sate the swinish appetite!"

And, where great Plato paced serene,
Or Newton paused with wistful eye,
Rush to the chase with hoofs unclean
And Babel-clamour of the stye!

Be yours the pay: be theirs the praise:
We will not rob them of their due,
Nor vex the ghosts of other days
By naming them along with you.

They sought and found undying fame:
They toiled not for reward nor thanks:
Their cheeks are hot with honest shame
For you, the modern mountebanks!

"For auld lang syne" the author sent a copy of his book to Mrs.
Hargreaves (Miss Alice Liddell), accompanied by a short note.

Christ Church, _December_ 21, 1883.

Dear Mrs. Hargreaves,--Perhaps the shortest day in the year
is not _quite_ the most appropriate time for recalling the
long dreamy summer afternoons of ancient times; but anyhow
if this book gives you half as much pleasure to receive as
it does me to send, it will be a success