"O cacophonic crowd! O unmellifluous mob! The poet's lip Would nectar sip, But scorns to browse on 'blob'! The expression is condensed," said Mr. Homer, with modest pride; "but I am of opinion that condensation often lends strength;--a--are you also of that opinion, Thomas?" "Every time!" said Tommy Candy. Mr. Homer looked bewildered, but bowed gently, accepting the commendation expressed in Tommy's voice. "I am glad that my little effusion meets with your approval, Thomas," he said. "It is the first effort I have been able to make since the death of my lamented relative. A--a simple movement, sir, of the Muse's wing; a--a--" "Flap?" suggested Tommy Candy. Mr. Homer looked still more bewildered, but bowed again, waving his hands with a gesture of mingled protest and deprecation. "I am of opinion, Thomas," he said, "that prose is the vehicle in which your thoughts are most apt to find expression. The wings of the Muse do not, in my opinion,--a--a--flap. But it is a matter--a--scarcely germane to the occasion. We will pursue our researches, if you please." The next names were more fortunate. The Golden Gem was followed by the Mermaid's Comb, and Mr. Homer glowed with poetic joy as he placed the pretty things on the shelves of the cabinet that awaited them. "I foresee, Thomas," he exclaimed, joyfully, "a resuscitation of the poetic faculty. I feel that, surrounded by these shapes of beauty, and not oppressed by such inappropriate cacophonies as Blork and Snob--I would say Snork and Blob--I shall often joyfully, as well as strictly, meditate the--I find myself unable to characterize the Muse as 'thankless,' in spite of my profound admiration for the immortal Milton. My spirit will, I feel it, once more sing, and--wing, sir! 'Mermaid's Comb!' In gazing on this symmetrical shape, my young friend, may we not in our mind's eye, Horatio--I would say Thomas--the remark is Hamlet's, as you are without doubt aware--behold it in the hand of some fair nymph, or siren, or--or person of that description--and behold her 'sleeking her soft alluring locks,' in Milton's immortal phrase? A--candor compels me to state, Thomas, that on the few--the very few--occasions when--when I have seen the locks of the fair sex in a state of--a--dampness;--of--humidity;--a--of--moisture, I have not thought" (Mr. Homer blushed very red) "that the condition was one which enhanced; which--a--added to, the charms with which that sex is--in a large number of cases--endowed." "That's so!" said Tommy. "Take 'em after a shampoo, and they're a sight, even the good-lookin' ones." Mr. Homer blushed still redder, and took out his handkerchief. "I have never,--" he began, and then coughed, and waved the subject delicately away.