SPOKEN.--What have I to do with politicians? And for your _Parliament cakes_. Why! everybody knows they are _bought_ and _sold_, and often _done brown_, and made _crusty_ all over the nation. No, no, its enough for me to cry-- Lily-white muffins, &c. Let soldiers and sailors, contending for glory, Delight in the rattle of drums and of trumpets; Undertakers get living by other folks dying, While actors make money by laughing or crying; Let lawyers with quizzels and quiddities bore ye, It's nothing to me, while I'm crying my crumpets. SPOKEN.--What do I care for lawyers? A'nt I a baker, and consequently, Master of the Rolls:--Droll enough, too, for a Master of the Rolls to be crying-- Lily-white muffins, &c. [Illustration: THE MUFFIN MAN. "Muffins, oh! crumpets, oh! Come buy, come buy of me. Muffins and crumpets, muffins, For breakfast or for tea."] The ringing of the muffin-man's bell--attached to which the pleasant associations are not a few--is prohibited by a ponderous Act of Parliament, but the prohibition has been all but inoperative, for the muffin bell still tinkles along the streets, and is rung vigorously in the suburbs, and just at the time when City gents, at winter's eve, are comfortably enveloped in fancy-patterned dressing gowns, prettily-worked smoking-caps, and easy-going and highly-coloured slippers, and saying within themselves or aloud:-- "Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast, Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round, And while the bubbling and loud hissing urn Throws up a steamy column, and the cups, That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each, So let us welcome peaceful evening in." "Hot Cross Buns!" Perhaps no "cry"--though it is only for one day in the year, is more familiar to the ears of a Londoner, than that of "_One-a-penny, two-a-penny, hot cross-buns_." We lie awake early upon Good Friday morning and listen to the London bells:-- "Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clement's Pancakes and fritters, say the bells of St. Peter's, Two sticks and an apple, say the bells of Whitechapel. Kettles and pans, say the bells of St. Ann's. Pokers and tongs, say the bells of St. John's Brickbats and tiles, say the bells of St. Giles' Halfpence and farthings, say the bells of St. Martin's. Bull's eyes and targets, say the bells of St. Marg'rets."