Gin it to me; whut you say? Ain’t you sma’t now! Oh, go ’way! Possum do look mighty nice; But you ax too big a price. Tell me, is you talkin’ true, Dat’s de gal’s whut ma’ies you? Come back, Sam; now whah’s you gwine? Co’se you knows dat possum’s mine! DISCOVERED[29] Seen you down at chu’ch las’ night, Nevah min’, Miss Lucy. What I mean? Oh, dat’s all right, Nevah min’, Miss Lucy. You was sma’t ez sma’t could be, But you couldn’t hide f’om me. Ain’t I got two eyes to see! Nevah min’, Miss Lucy. Guess you thought you’s awful keen; Nevah min’, Miss Lucy. Evahthing you done, I seen; Nevah min’, Miss Lucy. Seen him tek yo’ ahm jes’ so, When he got outside de do’— Oh, I know dat man’s yo’ beau! Nevah min’, Miss Lucy. Say now, honey, wha’d he say?— Nevah min’, Miss Lucy. Keep yo’ secrets—dat’s yo’ way— Nevah min’, Miss Lucy, Won’t tell me an’ I’m yo’ pal! I’m gwine tell his othah gal,— Know huh, too, huh name is Sal. Nevah min’, Miss Lucy. _Guy Wetmore Carryl_ Guy Wetmore Carryl, son of Charles Edward Carryl (see page 34), was born in New York City, March 4, 1873. He graduated from Columbia University in 1895, was editor of _Munsey’s Magazine_, 1895–6, and, during the time he lived abroad (from 1897 to 1902), was the foreign representative of various American publications. As a writer of prose he was received with no little acclaim; his stories _The Transgression of Andrew Vane_ (1902) and _Zut and Other Parisians_ (1903) held the attention of a restless reading public. But it was as a writer of light verse that Carryl was preëminent. Inheriting a remarkable technical gift from his father, young Carryl soon surpassed him as well as all other rivals in the field of brilliantly rhymed, brilliantly turned burlesques. Although he wrote several serious poems (the best of which have been collected in the posthumously published _The Garden of Years_, 1904), Carryl’s most characteristic work is to be found in his perversions of the parables of Æsop, _Fables for the Frivolous_ (1898), the topsy-turvy interpretations of old nursery rhymes, _Mother Goose for Grownups_ (1900) and the fantastic variations on the fairy tales in _Grimm Tales Made Gay_ (1903)—all of them with a surprising (and punning) Moral attached.