, I fear,
Though he was born to _shine_.

He once was _fat_, but now, indeed,
He's thin as any griever;
He died,--the Doctors all agreed,
Of a most _burning_ fever.

One thing of him is said with truth,
With which I'm much amused;
It is--That when he stood, forsooth,
A _stick_ he always used.

Now _winding-sheets_ he sometimes made,
But this was not enough,
For finding it a poorish trade,
He also dealt in _snuff_.

If e'er you said "_Go out_, I pray,"
He much ill nature show'd;
On such occasions he would say,
"Vy, if I do, _I'm blow'd_."

In this his friends do all agree,
Although you'll think I'm joking,
When _going out_ 'tis said that he
Was very fond of _smoking_.

Since all religion he despised,
Let these few words suffice,
Before he ever was baptized
They _dipp'd_ him once or twice.

* * * * *

SIBTHORP ON BORTHWICK.

Our Sibthorp, while speaking of the asinine qualities of Peter Borthwick,
remarked, that in his opinion that respectable member of the Lower House
must be indebted to the celebrated medicine promising extreme "length of
ears," and advertised as

[Illustration: PARR'S SPECIFIC.]

* * * * *

FIRE! FIRE!

A REMONSTRANCE WITH THE NINTH OF NOVEMBER.

How melancholy an object is a "polished front," that vain-glorious and
inhospitable array of cold steel and willow shavings, in which the
emancipated hearth is annually constrained by careful housewives to
signalise the return of summer, and its own consequent degradation from
being a part of the family to become a piece of mere formal furniture. And
truly in cold weather, which (thanks to the climate, for we love our
country) is all the weather we get in England, the fire is a most
important individual in a house: one who exercises a bland authority over
the tempers of all the other inmates--for who could quarrel with his feet
on the fender? one with whom everybody is anxious to be well--for who
would fall out with its genial glow? one who submits with a graceful
resignation to the caprices of every casual elbow--and who has never poked
a fire to death? one whose good offices have endeared him alike to the
selfish and to the cultivated,--at once a host, a mediator, and an
occupation.

We have often had our doubts (but then we are partial) whether it be not
possible to carry on a conversatio