("_I'm a devil! I'm a devil!" croaked Barnaby Rudge's Raven 'Grip': And this is a raven-mad sort of Edgar-Allan-Poem by Un qui est Grippé._) Once upon a midnight dreary Coming home I felt so weary, Felt, oh! many a pain; so curious, Which I'd never felt before. Then to bed,--no chance of napping, Blankets, rugs about me wrapping, Feverish burning pains galore. "Oh! I've got it! oh!" I muttered, "Influenza!! what a bore!!" _Only_ this!!--Oh!!--Nothing more!! Oh! my head and legs are aching! Now I'm freezing! Now I'm baking! Clockwork in my cerebellum! Oh! all over me I'm sore! In my bed I'm writhing, tossing, Yet I'm in a steamer, crossing. While KIRALFY's Venice bossing, I'm "against" and RUSSELL "for" In a case about the _Echo_, Somewhere out at Singapore! It's delirium!!! Nothing more. Then a Doctor comes in tapping Me all over, tapping, rapping. And with ear so close and curious Pressed to stethoscope, "Once more," Says he, "sing out ninety-ninely, Now again! You do it finely! Yes! Not bigger than a wine lee, There's the mischief, there's the _corps_ Of the insect that will kill us, Hiding there is the Bacillus; Only _that_, and nothing more!" "Why's he here with fear to fill us? Will he leave me, this Bacillus? Not one bone do I feel whole in, And of strength I've lost my store." Thus I to the Doctor talking, Ask "When shall I go out walking"? He, my earnest queries baulking, Says, "When all this trouble's o'er," "Monday? Tuesday? Wednesday? Thursday Friday? Saturday? Sunday? or In a week?" "Um!--not before." "Doctor!" cried I, "catch this evil Fiend! Bacillus!! Microbe!! devil!! Second syllable in Tem-pest! Send him to Plutonian Shore. Send him back to where he came from, To the place he gets his fame from, To the place he takes his name from; Kick him out of my front door!" So the Doctor feels my pulse, and, As I drop upon the floor, Quoth the Doctor, "Some days more." * * * * * [Illustration: "OUT IN THE COLD!" "I AM LIKE A TRAVELLER LOST IN THE SNOW, WHO BEGINS TO GET STIFF WHILE THE SNOWFLAKES COVER HIM." _Speech of Prince Von Bismarck at Friedrichsruhe._] * * * * * "OUT IN THE COLD!" ["I am like a traveller lost in the snow, who begins to get stiff and to sink down while the snowflakes cover him. In fact, I am gradually losing interest in politics, but the feeling, like that of the traveller sinking under the snow, is a pleasant one."--_Prince Bismarck to the Deputation of Leipsic Students_.] AIR--"_Excelsior_!" The century was waning fast, As through a wintry waste there passed A man, who bore, 'mid snow and ice, A banner with the strange device, Excel no more!