"The reason why he came down here 'Twas said he had-- You remember the name--Porter, and how I was at Uxbridge, situated on a hill, was Captain M'Gowd, then--young lieutenant, &c., devilish severe verses--but now mind--here they are: "The other day to Uxbridge town A major of dragoons came down, The reason why he came down here 'Twas said he had a love (remember the name) for--Beer!" If you have never heard a maudlin, mess-table story, told over the sixth bottle, you have at the least, read one. Editor's Drawer. The readers of the "Drawer" will be amused with a forcible picture, which we find in our collection, of the ups-and-downs of a strolling player's life. One would think such things enough to deter young men and women from entering upon so thorny a profession. "In one of the writer's professional excursions," runs our extract, "his manager finds himself in a woeful predicament. His pieces will not 'draw' in the quiet New England village where he had temporarily 'set up shop;' he and his company are literally starving; the men moodily pacing the stage; the women, who had kept up their spirits to the last, sitting silent and sorrowful; and the children, little sufferers! actually crying for food. "I saw all this," says the manager, "and I began to feel very suicidal. It was night, and I looked about for a rope. At length I spied just what I wanted. A rope dangled at the prompt-side, and near a steep flight of stairs which led to a dressing room. '_That's_ it!' said I, with gloomy satisfaction: 'I'll mount those stairs, noose myself, and drop quietly off in the night; but first let me see whether it is firmly fastened or no.' "I accordingly approached, gave a pull at the rope, when '_whish! whish!_' I found I had set the rain a-going. And now a thought struck me. I leaped, danced, and shouted madly for joy. "'Where did you get your liquor from?' shouted the 'walking-gentleman' of the company. "'He's gone mad!' said Mrs. ----, principal lady-actress of the corps. 'Poor fellow!--hunger has made him a maniac. Heaven shield _us_ from a like fate!' "'Hunger!' shouted I, 'we shall be hungry no more! Here's food from above (which was _literally_ true), manna in the wilderness, and all that sort of thing. We'll feed on rain; we'll feed on rain!' "I seized a hatchet, and mounting by a ladder, soon brought the rain-box tumbling to the ground. "My meaning was now understood. An end of the box was pried off, and full a bushel of dried beans and peas were poured out, to the delight of all. Some were stewed immediately, and although rather hard, I never relished any thing more. But while the operation of cooking was going on below, we amused ourselves with parching some beans upon the sheet-iron--the 'thunder' of the theatre--set over an old furnace, and heated by rosin from the lightning-bellows. "So we fed upon rain, cooked by thunder-and-lightning!"