Now, my mind seeming to treat the matter very pleasantly as well as profitably, I followed her counsel, and instead of calling out for relief according to the fable, I kept along on my journey, with my bundle of sticks,--_i.e._, my arms and legs. Between ourselves, it would have been “extremely inconvenient,” as I once heard the opium-eater declare, to pay the debt of nature at that particular juncture; nor do I quite know, to be candid, when it would altogether suit me to settle it, so, like other persons in narrow circumstances, I laughed, and gossipped, and played the agreeable with all my might, and as such pleasant behaviour sometimes obtains a respite from a human creditor, who knows but that it may prove successful with the Universal Mortgagee? At all events, here I am, humming “Jack’s Alive!” and my own dear skilful native physician gives me hopes of a longer lease than appeared from the foreign reading of the covenants. He declares, indeed, that, anatomically, my heart is lower hung than usual--but what of that? _The more need to keep it up!_ [Illustration] EDITORIAL NOTE. This new issue of HOOD’S Poems has been completely revised, and will be found not only larger in size, but far richer in contents, than any previous edition. This, with the companion volume of “Serious Poems,” will be found to contain _the entire poetical works of Thomas Hood_. The volume has been, moreover, enriched by the addition of a large number of the highly humorous illustrations, in which Thomas Hood’s comic power was displayed. _July, 1876._ [Illustration] CONTENTS. PAGE Reply to a Pastoral Poet 1 A Tale of Temper 2 The Captain’s Cow 5 The Doves and the Crows 9 A Tale of a Trumpet 10 An Open Question 32 The Turtles 37 Town and Country 41 No! 44 The Lost Heir 44 She is far from the Land 48 Anacreontic 50 The Forlorn Shepherd’s Complaint 51 Huggins and Duggins 52 Pain in a Pleasure-Boat 55 Gog and Magog 58