—_Christina G. Rossetti._ A CONTEST BETWEEN NOSE AND EYES Between Nose and Eyes a strange contest arose. The spectacles set them unhappily wrong; The point in dispute was, as all the world knows, To which the sad spectacles ought to belong. So Tongue was the lawyer and argued the cause With a great deal of skill, and a wig full of learning; While Chief-Baron Ear sat to balance the laws, So famed for his talent in nicely discerning. “In behalf of the Nose it will quickly appear, And your lordship,” he said, “will undoubtedly find That the Nose has had spectacles always in wear, Which amounts to possession time out of mind.” Then holding the spectacles up to the Court— “Your lordship observes they are made with a straddle, As wide as the ridge of the Nose is; in short, Designed to sit close to it, just like a saddle. “Again, would your lordship a moment suppose (’Tis a case that has happened, and may be again), That the visage or countenance had not a nose, Pray who would, or who could, wear spectacles then? “On the whole it appears, and my argument shows, With a reasoning the Court will never condemn, That the spectacles plainly were made for the Nose, And the Nose was as plainly intended for them.” Then shifting his side (as a lawyer knows how), He pleaded again in behalf of the Eyes; But what were his arguments few people know, For the Court did not think they were equally wise. So his lordship decreed with a brave solemn tone, Decisive and clear, without one if or but— “That whenever the Nose put his spectacles on, By daylight or candlelight—Eyes should be shut!” —_William Cowper._ To err is human, to forgive divine. —_Alexander Pope._ The man that hails you Tom or Jack, And proves by thumping on your back, His sense of your great merit, Is such a friend that one had need Be very much his friend, indeed, To pardon or to bear it. —_William Cowper._ [Illustration: Out in the Cold.] _The Old Woman and Her Pig._ [Illustration] An old woman was sweeping her house, and she found a little crooked sixpence. “What,” said she, “shall I do with this little sixpence? I will go to market, and buy a little pig.” As she was coming home, she came to a stile; the piggy would not go over the stile. She went a little farther, and she met a dog. So she said to the dog— “Dog, dog, bite pig; Piggy won’t get over the stile; And I shan’t get home to-night.” But the dog would not. She went a little farther, and she met a stick. So she said— [Illustration]