FOR I have a small favor to ask you, As concerns a bull-pup, and the same,-- If the duty would not overtask you,-- You would please to procure for me, _game_; And send per express to the Flat, Miss,-- For they say York is famed for the breed, Which, though words of deceit may be that, Miss, I'll trust to your taste, Miss, indeed. [Illustration: _For I have a small favor to ask you, As concerns a bull-pup_] _P.S._--Which this same interfering Into other folks' way I despise; Yet if it so be I was hearing That it's just empty pockets as lies Between you and Joseph, it follers That, having no family claims, Here's my pile, which it's six hundred dollars As is _yours_, with respects, TRUTHFUL JAMES. [Illustration: _Here's my pile; which it's six hundred dollars, As is yours, with respects_] [Illustration] HER LAST LETTER JUNE 4th! Do you know what that date means? June 4th! by this air and these pines! Well,--only you know how I hate scenes,-- These might be my very last lines! For perhaps, sir, you'll kindly remember-- If some _other_ things you've forgot-- That you last wrote the 4th of _December_,-- Just six months ago!--from this spot; [Illustration: _That you last wrote the 4th of December,-- Just six months ago!--from this spot_] FROM this spot, that you said was "the fairest For once being held in my thought." Now, really I call that the barest Of--well, I won't say what I ought! For here I am back from my "riches," My "triumphs," my "tours," and all that; And _you_'re not to be found in the ditches Or temples of Poverty Flat! [Illustration: _And you're not to be found in the ditches Or temples of Poverty Flat!_] [Illustration: _From this spot, that you said was "the fairest For once being held in my thought"_] FROM Paris we went for the season To London, when pa wired, "Stop." Mamma says "his _health_" was the reason. (I've heard that some things took a "drop.") But she said if my patience I'd summon I could go back with him to the Flat-- Perhaps I was thinking of some one Who of me--well--was not thinking _that_! [Illustration: _From Paris we went for the season To London, when Pa wired, "Stop"_]