ON IT!!"]

* * * * *

Our amiable old friend, Mrs. R., came across a book entitled _Playthings
and Parodies_, by BARRY PAIN. "Oh, I _must_ buy _that_!" she exclaimed.
"I've seen him so often in the Pantomime at Drury Lane! And fancy his being
an Author, too! But I don't so much wonder at it, because I remember that,
when I was a little girl, there was a celebrated Shakspearian Clown at
Astley's called BARRY, and he sailed in a tub drawn by geese down the
Thames, and there was a wonderful Pantomime actor of the name of PAIN. And
now this talented gentleman turns out to be an Author as well!!"

* * * * *

[Illustration: RETURN OF "GRANDOLPH" THE WANDERER! "BE IT EVER SO HUMBLE,
THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME!"]

* * * * *

[Illustration: THE EVIDENCE OF WEALTH.

"AND WHO LIVES IN THE BIG HOUSE OPPOSITE?"

"MR. FLINDERS, SIR,--AND MRS. FLINDERS,--THE OLD VETERINARY SURGEON AND HIS
WIFE."

"THEY MUST BE PRETTY WELL OFF, I SHOULD THINK, TO LIVE IN A HOUSE LIKE
THAT?"

"OH YES, SIR, VERY RICH INDEED. WHY, THEY 'AD A GOLDEN WEDDING THERE, THE
WEEK BEFORE LAST!"]

* * * * *

FINALITY.

["He was one of those who believed that, even in the ordinary
legislation of the House, and still more in a measure of such
complexity, it was the utmost folly to talk of finality!"--_Mr. J.
Redmond the Home-Rule Bill._]

Are our sage legislators, then, set upon finding
A measure that's "final, conclusive, and binding,"
As lawyer-phrase puts it? They might as well try
To fix dawn in the East, or nail clouds to the sky!
There's nothing that's "final" in infinite time,
That great, goalless, measureless race-course sublime?
In which relays of runners must keep up the race?
There's nothing "conclusive" in limitless space;
And "binding" man's soul to his best of to-day
For the future of growth, in an absolute way,
Were folly as futile as binding an oak
To the seedling's first prop, or the sapling's first yoke;
For provisional law, not for secular life,
Such phrases are fit. Yet to heal age-long strife
By the very best "betterment" now in our ken,
Till--a better shines forth's the first duty of men.
Do right to the height of our sight's actuality!--
Yes, that is our best--and our only--Finality!

* * * * *

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