If I had my widow or maiden's whim-- I know who--I know who It should be! Why, Uncle Tim, In his bran new buttons and blue. Tim's a middle ag'd gentleman sleek, With a laughing eye and a cherry cheek! He loves a good joke Like other blythe folk; A Christmas carol, A cup from the barrel, And a glass of old wine seven days in the week! Hear him sing, and hear him talk, The veriest merriest cock of the walk; Daintily dress'd Like a buck in his best! Loyal and true As his holiday blue! With black silk stock and embroider'd vest; In Wellingtons trim Struts Uncle Tim! With beaver and cane, And smart gold chain-- Di'mond pin Stuck under his chin-- All Little Britain Were never so smitten! We ne'er shall look on his like again! Heigho! my heart is low! Devils blue As Tim's bran new! Fidgets, fumes, Mops and brooms! Tantrums all from top to toe! Heigho! Such a quiz! such a beau! Such a shape! such a make! Would I were a lady, As blooming as May-day; With carriages, house, and Twice twenty thousand; If it only were for Uncle Timothy's sake! CHAPTER IX. |Gentle Reader! we promised thee at the outset of our journey pleasant companions by the way, and as an earnest of that promise, we have introduced Benjamin Bosky and Uncle Tim. We would now bespeak thy courtesy for others that are soon to follow. In passing happily through life, half the battle depends upon the persons with whom we may be associated. And shall we carry spleen into the closet?--grope for that daily plague in our books, when it elbows and stares us in the face at every turn? To chronicle the “Painful Peregrinations” of Uncle Timothy through this livelong day, would exhibit him, like “Patience,” not sitting “on a monument, smiling at grief,” but lolling in Mr. Bosky's britschka, laughing (in his sleeve!) at the strange peculiarities of the Muffs, and listening with mild endurance to the unaccountable antipathies of Mrs. Flumgarten. Now the Fubsys might be called, _par excellence_, a prudent family. And Prudence is a nymph we much admire, She loves to aid the hypocrite and liar, Helping poor rascals through the mire, Whom filth and infamy begrime: