od
deal in this direction, and is fond of giving an epigrammatic turn to a
bright thought, as in the following couplet:

"Would you sketch in two words a coquette and deceiver?
Name two Irish geniuses, Lover and Lever!"

She also succeeds with the quatrain:

ON BEING CALLED A GOOSE.

A signal name is this, upon my word!
Great Juno's geese saved Rome her citadel.
Another drowsy Manlius may be stirred
And the State saved, if I but cackle well.

* * * * *

I recall a charming _jeu d'esprit_ from Mrs. Barrows, the beloved "Aunt
Fanny," who writes equally well for children and grown folks, and whose
big heart ranges from earnest philanthropy to the perpetration of
exquisite nonsense.

It is but a trifle, sent with a couple of peanut-owls to a niece of
Bryant's. The aged poet was greatly amused.

"When great Minerva chose the Owl,
That bird of solemn phiz,
That truly awful-looking fowl,
To represent her wis-
Dom, little recked the goddess of
The time when she would howl
To see a Peanut set on end,
And called--Minerva's Owl."

* * * * *

Miss Phelps has given us some sentences which convey an epigram in a
keen and delicate fashion, as:

"All forms of self-pity, like Prussian blue, should be sparingly used."

"As a rule, a man can't cultivate his mustache and his talents
impartially."

"As happy as a kind-hearted old lady with a funeral to go to."

"No men are so fussy about what they eat as those who think their brains
the biggest part of them."

"The professor's sister, a homeless widow, of excellent Vermont
intentions and high ideals in cup-cake."

And this longer extract has the same characteristics:

"You know how it is with people, Avis; some take to zoology, and some
take to religion. That's the way it is with places. It may be the
Lancers, and it may be prayer-meetings. Once I went to see my grandmother
in the country, and everybody had a candy-pull; there were twenty-five
candy-pulls and taffy-bakes in that town that winter. John Rose says, in
the Connecticut Valley, where he came from, it was missionary barrels;
and I heard of a place where it was cold coffee. In Harmouth it's
improving your mind. And so," added Coy, "we run to reading-clubs, and
we all go fierce, winter after winter, to see who'll get the 'severest.'
There's a set outside of the faculty