* * * * * ~Mr. L. Frank Tooker~ of Callao, Peru, insists that the rymbel is didactic, and that its highest form is found in Spanish South America, where it is used to inculcate the prudence and self-restraint for which that region is preëminent. In illustration of this contention, he sends this from Callao: THE PRUDENT LOVER I think when I behold her face, It is so varee fair, ’Tis best to get acquaint’, you know, And so I gaze _simpatico_: That’s how you call to stare. Ah, she was pausing on that stair So timid like the fawn; And fawn-like were her eyes, her lips Were like the flowers the slow bee sips Upon the dewy lawn. But, _hola! she_ was not in lawn; For as she turned to go, I saw the pearls glow at her throat, The satin gown about her float, Though timid like the doe. _Caramba!_ I have not the dough For such expensiveness. The eyes, the lips, the timid air, That’s varee nice; but, oh, beware That C. O. D. express! * * * * * Again the low rymbling sound of Miss Carolyn Wells!! This time ART is her impassioned theme. She writes from Hansontown, Herfordshire. ON A PORTRAIT OF NANCY Full winsome was her bonny face, And eke her golden hair. Her gown was weft of rarest lace; And high aloft, with gentle grace, A sunshade pink she bare. The She Bear from the forest came, Just why, I cannot state. The creature seemed to be quite tame; Methought, would I her favor claim, I must ingratiate. In gray she ate! The lunch was fair,-- We had a window-seat. Her gray gown meek, yet debonair;-- Demure,--yet with a regal air,-- She looked imperial,--sweet. “Imperial suite? Yes,--I dare say ’T would make our voyage gladder.” My wife is mad about display-- (But when I mentioned what we’d pay, It only made Rose madder!) Rose madder,--’tis the tint I’d use To paint my brain’s fair figment; A shape, half goddess and half muse, And all in misty, pinkish hues, The color scheme,--the pigment. The color scheme the pig meant? Ma’am, That _was_ a subtle fancy! In tints of dawning gooseb’ry jam, And those soft pinks of early ham, We painted little Nancy! [Illustration: Drawing by Birch THE “ELITE” BATHING DRESS _Now so much in vogue at Newport_]