Part 57 (1/2)

With undissembled grief I tell,-- For sorrow never comes too late,-- The simplest bonnet in Pall Mall Is sold for 1 8_s._

CATHARINE M. FANSHAWE.

Said the Gryphon, ”Do you know why it's called a whiting?”

”I never thought about it,” said Alice.

”Why?”

”_It does the boots and shoes_,” the Gryphon replied very solemnly.

Alice was thoroughly puzzled. ”Does the boots and shoes?” she repeated in a wondering tone.

”Why, what are _your_ shoes done with?” said the Gryphon. ”I mean, what makes them so s.h.i.+ny?”

Alice looked down at them, and considered a little before she gave her answer. ”They're done with blacking, I believe.”

”Boots and shoes under the sea,” the Gryphon went on in a deep voice, ”are done with whiting. Now you know.”

LEWIS CARROLL, _Alice in Wonderland_.

I'm always dull on Christmas Day, It lets a flood of ills in, For that's the time those birds of prey Bring all their horrid bills in!

J. R. PLANCHe, _Songs and Poems_.

The wit of a family is usually best received among strangers.

GEORGE ELIOT, _Middlemarch_.

Sweet maids in wimples fair y-wrought, Shall smile upon thee. Thou shalt say, Oft, by thy halidame, there's nought So gracious and so fair as they, But what thy halidame may be, I trow 'tis useless asking me.

H. SAVILE CLARKE.

Le vrai honnete homme est celui qui ne se pique de rien.

LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, _Reflexions_.

O memory! thou art but a sigh For friends.h.i.+ps dead and loves forgot, And many a cold and altered eye That once did say--Forget me not!

And I must bow me to thy laws, For--odd although it may be thought-- I can't tell who the deuce it was That gave me this Forget-me-not!

_Bon Gaultier Ballads._

What is Truth? ”Bring me the wash-hand basin,”