Waken snakes! and they _did_ And they rattled like mad; For it was not a “kid,” But some medicine he had, Injun Joe, for persuadin’ the critters but William’s bit powerful bad. So they’ve put him outside Of a bottle of Rye, And they’ve set him to ride A mustang as kin shy, To keep up his poor circulation; and that’s the last chance for Bill Nye. But a near thing it is, And the camp’s in the dust. He’s a pard as we’d miss If poor Bill was to bust— If the last of the Nyes were a-sleepin the peaceable sleep of the just. XV. _From Professor Forth to the Rev. Mr. Casaubon_. The delicacy of the domestic matters with which the following correspondence deals cannot be exaggerated. It seems that Belinda (whose Memoirs we owe to Miss Rhoda Broughton) was at Oxford while Mr. and Mrs. Casaubon were also resident near that pleasant city, so famed for its Bodleian Library. Professor Forth and Mr. Casaubon were friends, as may be guessed; their congenial characters, their kindred studies, Etruscology and Mythology, combined to ally them. Their wives were not wholly absorbed in their learned pursuits, and if Mr. Ladislaw was dangling after Mrs. Casaubon, we know that Mr. Rivers used to haunt with Mrs. Forth the walks of Magdalen. The regret and disapproval which Mrs. Casaubon expresses, and her desire to do good to Mrs. Forth, are, it is believed, not alien to her devoted and exemplary character. Bradmore-road, Oxford, May 29.