"First let me say my catechism,

Which my poor mammy taught to me." "Make haste, make haste," says guzzling Jimmy, While Jack pulled out his snickersnee.

So Billy went up to the main-top-gallant-mast,
And down he fell on his bended knee.

He scarce had come to the twelfth commandment
When up he jumps. There's land I see:

66

"Jerusalem and Madagascar,

And North and South Amerikee; There's the British flag a-riding at anchor With Admiral Napier, K. C. B."

So when they got aboard of the Admiral's,
He hanged fat Jack and flogged Jimmee;
But as for little Bill he made him
The captain of a seventy-three.

Meekly and duly:

I will not enter there,

To sully your pure prayer
With thoughts unruly.

But suffer me to pace
Round the forbidden place,
Lingering a minute,

Like outcast spirits who wait
And see through heaven's gate
Angels within it.

THE MAHOGANY-TREE.

CHRISTMAS is here:
Winds whistle shrill,

Icy and chill, —
Little care we;

Little we fear

Weather without,

Shelter about

The Mahogany-tree.

Once on the boughs
Birds of rare plumes
Sang, in its bloom:
Night-birds are we;
Here we carouse,
Singing like them,
Perched round the stem

Of the jolly old tree.

Here let us sport,
Boys, as we sit;
Laughter and wit

Flashing so free.

Life is but short;
When we are gone,
Let them sing on

Round the old tree.

Evenings we knew,

Happy as this;
Faces we miss,

Pleasant to see.

Kind hearts and true,

Gentle and just,

Peace to your dust!

We sing round the tree.

Care, like a dun,

Lurks at the gate:
Let the dog wait;
Happy we'll be!
Drink, every one;
Pile up the coals,
Fill the red bowls,

Round the old tree!

Drain we the cup-
Friend, art afraid?
Spirits are laid

In the Red Sea.

Mantle it up;

Empty it yet:

Let us forget,

Round the old tree.

Sorrows, begone!

Life and its ills,

Duns and their bills,

Bid we to flee.
Come with the dawn,
Blue-devil sprite :

Leave us to-night,

Round the old tree.

THE END OF THE PLAY.

THE play is done; the curtain drops,
Slow falling to the prompter's bell:
A moment yet the actor stops,

And looks around, to say farewell.
It is an irksome word and task;

And when he's laughed and said his say,

He shows, as he removes the mask,
A face that's anything but gay.

One word ere yet the evening ends;

Let's close it with a parting rhyme, And pledge a hand to all young friends, As fits the merry Christmas-time.

On life's wild scene you too have parts,
That Fate ere long shall bid you play:
Good-night! with honest gentle hearts
A kindly greeting go alway!

Good-night! I'd say, the griefs, the joys,
Just hinted in this mimic page,
The triumphs and defeats of boys,
Are but repeated in our age.

I'd say, your woes were not less keen,

Your hopes more vain, than those of men; Your pangs or pleasures of fifteen

At forty-five played o'er again.

I'd say, we suffer and we strive,

Not less nor more as men than boys; With grizzled beards at forty-five,

As erst at twelve in corduroys.

And if, in time of sacred youth,

We learned at home to love and pray, Pray Heaven that early Love and Truth May never wholly pass away.

And in the world, as in the school,

I'd say, how fate may change and shift; The prize be sometimes with the fool, The race not always to the swift. The strong may yield, the good may fall, The great man be a vulgar clown,

The knave be lifted over all,

The kind cast pitilessly down.

Who knows the inscrutable design?
Blessed be he who took and gave!

Why should your mother, Charles, not mine,
Be weeping at her darling's grave?
We bow to heaven that willed it so,
That darkly rules the fate of all,
That sends the respite or the blow,
That's free to give or to recall.

This crowns his feast with wine and wit: Who brought him to that mirth and state?

His betters, see, below him sit,

Or hunger hopeless at the gate.

Who bade the mud from Dives's wheel
To spurn the rags of Lazarus ?
Come, brother, in that dust we'll kneel,
Confessing Heaven that ruled it thus.

So each shall mourn, in life's advance,
Dear hopes, dear friends, untimely killed;
Shall grieve for many a forfeit chance,
And longing passion unfulfilled.
Amen! whatever fate be sent,

Pray God the heart may kindly glow,
Although the head with cares be bent,
And whitened with the winter snow.

Come wealth or want, come good or ill,
Let young and old accept their part,
And bow before the Awful Will,

And bear it with an honest heart,
Who misses or who wins the prize.
Go, lose or conquer as you can;
But if you fail, or if you rise,

Be each, pray God, a gentleman.

A gentleman, or old or young!

(Bear kindly with my humble lays)
The sacred chorus first was sung
Upon the first of Christmas days;
The shepherds heard it overhead-
The joyful angels raised it then:
Glory to Heaven on high, it said,
And peace on earth to gentle men.

My song, save this, is little worth;

I lay the weary pen aside,

And wish you health, and love, and mirth, As fits the solemn Christmas-tide.

As fits the holy Christmas birth,

Be this, good friends, our carol still,-
Be peace on earth, be peace on earth,
To men of gentle will.