uch-and-go game they are playin',
And TOMMY, he thinks she is right,--plain as print!]

* * * * *

"SIC ITUR AD ASTRA!"

Look out for _Mr. Punch Among the Planets_! He is a Star of the
first magnitude, and the above is the title of his Christmas Number.
It will issue from, to use astrological language, the House of
BRADBURY-AGNEW-&-CO., although the sidereal and celestial subjects
of the forthcoming Christmas Number are suggestive of the old days
of "BRADBURY and Heavens."

* * * * *

THREE TASTES.

I.

My pipe, he tastes of turpentine--
He is a penny pipe--
A taste that every pipe of mine
Has when he is not ripe.
I bought him at a little shop
Where they sell fruit and cheese,
Tobacco, toys, and ginger-pop,
And said, "A _cheap_ pipe, please."

It was a maiden sold him me,
And she was proud and cold;
She'd briar pipes at two-and-three
For them that squandered gold;
She'd one that had a leather case.
Item, a curly stem;
And cheap pipes make her shrug her face,
She had such scorn of them.

II.

My pipe he tastes of cherry now;
Gone, like the foam of wine,
Gone, like the mist from mountain-brow,
Gone is that turpentine.
With the pure herb I feel it blend--
That charm of cherry-wood,
And smoke him six times straight on end,
Because he is so good.

And yet my aunt gets up, and sniffs,
And therewith wags her head;
And warns me in between the whiffs
That I shall soon be dead;
And says excessive smoking must
Debase and bring me low,
She makes herself offensive, just
Because she loves me so.

III.

My pipe, he tastes of chocolate,
And he has grown so dear so dear,
That I get up at half-past eight
And smoke till night is here.
My aunt informs me that the smell
Is ranker than before--
I could not love her half so well
Loved I not baccy more.

The female mind! The female mind!
How beautiful it is!
And yet it has to sit behind
When it's compared with this--
This taste that falls upon my pipe,
That calms when woman clacks,
In the sweet season when he's ripe,
And just before he cracks.

* * * * *

THE MAGIC HORSE.

(_A PARALLEL NOT TO BE PUSHED TOO FAR._)

[Illustration]

["You are likewise to understand that MALAMBRUNO told me that,
whenever