"Clad in frost are all the distant mountain-peaks, And the furnace is as hungry as a boy; While the plumber, as he gloats upon the leaks, Is the model that the painter takes for 'Joy.' "And from all of this we learn the lesson sweet-- The glad message of Dame Nature, grand and clear: That the summer-time has gone with all its heat, And the crisp and frosty winter days are here. You see, Mr. Poet, that out of that one idea alone--that cataloguing of the things of the four seasons--you can get four poems that are really worth reading," said the Idiot. "We could call that section 'The Seasons,' and make it the first part of the book. In the second part we could do the same thing, only in greater detail, for each one of the months. Just as a sample, take the month of February. We could run something like this in on February: "Now o'er the pavement comes a hush As pattering feet wade deep in slush That every Feb. Doth flow and ebb." "I see," said the Poet. "It wouldn't take long to fill up a book with stuff like that." "To make the appeal stronger, let me take the month of July, which is now on," resumed the Idiot. "You may find it even more convincing: "Now the fly-- The rhubarb-pie-- The lightning in the sky-- Thermometers so spry-- That leap up high-- The roads all dry, The hoboes nigh, The town a-fry, The mad ki-yi A-snarling by, The crickets cry-- All tell us that it is July. Eh?" "I don't believe anybody would believe I wrote it, that's all," said the Poet, shaking his head dubiously. "They'd find out, sooner or later, that you did it, just as they discovered that Will Carleton wrote 'Paradise Lost,' and Dick Davis was the real author of Shakespeare. Why don't you publish the thing over your own name?" "Too modest," said the Idiot. "What do you think of this: "Now the festive candidate Goes a-sporting through the State, And he kisses babes from Quogue to Kalamazoo; For he really wants to win Without spending any tin, And he thinks he has a chance to kiss it through." "That's fair, only I don't think you'll find many candidates doing that sort of thing nowadays," said the Poet. "Most public men I know of would rather spend their money than kiss the babies. That style of campaigning has gone out." "It has in the cities," said the Idiot. "But back in the country it is still done, and the candidate who turns his back on the infant might as well give up the race. I know, because a cousin of mine ran for supervisor once, and he was licked out of his boots because he tried to do his kissing by proxy--said he'd give the kisses in a bunch to a committee of young ladies, who could distribute them for him. Result was everybody was down on him--even the young ladies." "I guess he was a cousin of yours, all right," laughed the Doctor; "that scheme bears the Idiot brand."