to get ashore.

Your loving reader,

F. D.

* * * * *

A correspondent sends us the series of "Beheaded Rhymes" which we print
below. Each of the stanzas contains two examples of this kind of
rhyming, and, in each example, the first blank is to be filled with a
word that suits both the sense and the measure. The next blank that
occurs is filled with all of the chosen word except its first letter;
and this process goes on until the word can no longer be beheaded and
yet leave another word. The making of such "Beheaded Rhymes" as these,
in company, to see who can succeed best, sometimes whiles away very
pleasantly a long evening of disagreeable weather.

A NIGHT'S ADVENTURES.

It made a most tremendous ----! (1.)
I gave my horse a sudden ----:
He threw me full against an ----,
And broke my collar-bone.
"What can I do in such a ----? (2.)
My horse is gone, I have no ----,"
I murmured with a groan.

I was as wet as any ----; (3.)
The wind and thunder made a ----,
And neither moon nor star was ----;
The night was black as sin.
The fall had given me such a ----! (4.)
And I was miles from any ----:
I floundered on through mud and ----
To reach the nearest inn.

But when I found the wished-for ----, (5.)
And saw through windows dim with ----
A fellow holding up an ----,
I would have cried with fear.
Each seat was filled by such a ----, (6.)
As might have fled from any ----
Of thief or buccaneer.

I strove to overcome my ----, (7.)
And ventured on a traveler's ----
To enter boldly there.
The porter waved aloft a ----, (8.)
But still I stepped within the ----
And took an empty chair.

The leader gave a fearful ----; (9.)
Sprang up, and overturned the ----.
Oh! I could cover half a ----
With what I felt that night.
He came, and gave me such a ----, (10.)
That I cried out amain, though ----
With anguish and affright.

"Come, will you join our game of ----? (11.)
Or do you choose that I should ----
The wretch, who wishes naught but ----
To honest men like us?"
With that he flung me from the ----, (12.)
And seizing on me by the ----,
He drew me forth into the ----
And made a dreadful fuss.

The night had now grown clear and ----. (13.)
I wandered