I knew her as a child, and said She ought to have inhabited A brighter planet: Some seem more meet for angel wings Than Mother Nature's apron strings,-- And so did Janet. She grew in beauty, and in pride, Her waist was slim, and once I tried, In sport, to span it, At Church, with only this result, They threatened with _quicunque vult_ Both me and Janet. She fairer grew, till Love became In me a very ardent flame, With Faith to fan it: Alas, I played the fool, and she ... The fault of both lay much with me, But more with Janet. For Janet chose a cruel part,-- How many win a tender heart And then trepan it! She left my bark to swim or sink, Nor seemed to care--and yet, I think, You liked me, Janet. The old old tale! you know the rest-- The heart that slumbered in her breast Was soft as granite: Who breaks a heart, and then omits To gather up its broken bits, Is heartless, Janet. I'm wiser now--for when I curse My Fate, a voice cries, "Bad or worse You must not ban it: Take comfort, you are quits, for if You mourn a Love, stark dead and stiff, Why so does Janet." BERANGER. Cast adrift on this sphere Where my fellows were born, None gave me a tear, I was weakly--forlorn. My plaint for their spurning To heaven took wing,-- Sweet voices said, yearning, "Sing, Little One, sing!" My lot, as I rove, Is to sing for the throng;-- And will not they love The poor Child for his song? THE BEAR PIT. AT THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. We liked the bear's serio-comical face, As he lolled with a lazy, a lumbering grace; Said Slyboots to me--(just as if _she_ had none), "Papa, let's give Bruin a bit of your bun." Says I, "A plum bun might please wistful old Bruin, For he can't eat the stone that the cruel boy threw in; Stick _yours_ on the point of mama's parasol, And then he will climb to the top of the pole. "Some bears have got two legs, some bears have got more,-- Be good to old bears if they've no legs or four: Of duty to age you should never be careless, My dear, I am bald--and I soon shall be hairless! "The gravest aversion exists amongst bears For rude forward persons who give themselves airs, We know how some graceless young people were mauled For plaguing a prophet, and calling him bald. "Strange ursine devotion! Their dancing-days ended, Bears die to 'remove' what, in life, they defended: They succoured the Prophet, and since that affair The bald have a painful regard for the bear."