hor who complained that the
work of punctuating always brought on a pain in the small of his back.

"Asked to assist a servant-man not very well able to read in getting his
Sunday-school lessons, and to write out all the answers for him clear
through the book--to save his time.

"A lady whose husband expects to be absent on a journey for a month or
two wishes I would write a poem to testify her joy at his return.

"An elegy on a young man, one of the nine children of a judge of
probate."

* * * * *

Miss Sedgwick, in her letters, occasionally showed a keen sense of
humor, as, when speaking of a certain novel, she said:

"There is too much force for the subject. It is as if a railroad should
be built and a locomotive started to transport skeletons, specimens, and
one bird of Paradise."

* * * * *

Mrs. Caroline Gilman, born in 1794, and still living, author of
"Recollections of a Southern Matron," etc., will be represented by one
playful poem, which has a veritable New England flavor:

JOSHUA'S COURTSHIP.

A NEW ENGLAND BALLAD.

Stout Joshua was a farmer's son,
And a pondering he sat
One night when the fagots crackling burned,
And purred the tabby cat.

Joshua was a well-grown youth,
As one might plainly see
By the sleeves that vainly tried to reach
His hands upon his knee.

His splay-feet stood all parrot-toed
In cowhide shoes arrayed,
And his hair seemed cut across his brow
By rule and plummet laid.

And what was Joshua pondering on,
With his widely staring eyes,
And his nostrils opening sensibly
To ease his frequent sighs?

Not often will a lover's lips
The tender secret tell,
But out he spoke before he thought,
"My gracious! Nancy Bell!"

His mother at her spinning-wheel,
Good woman, stood and spun,
"And what," says she, "is come o'er you,
Is't _airnest_ or is't fun?"

Then Joshua gave a cunning look,
Half bashful and half sporting,
"Now what did father do," says he,
"When first he came a courting?"

"Why, Josh, the first thing that he did,"
With a knowing wink, said she,
"He dressed up of a Sunday night,
And _cast sheep's eyes_ at me."

Josh said no more, but straight went out
And sought a butcher's pen,
Where twelve fat sheep, for market bound,