In yonder bower, one glorious May, Three lovely sisters grew; _One_, in imperial bright array Of richest purple hue; _One_, who conceal’d her drooping head Amid her foliage green; And _one_ with fragrant petals spread, Our beauteous Summer-Queen. 1. Waster of time, of mind, of health, This useless creature see: Yet once, in print, he gather’d wealth And greatly sought was he. 2. From the north-east adventurers came And built this City fair; They call’d it by the river’s name And yet--no river’s there! 3. A monster was to be destroy’d, A hero claim’d the feat; Alas! the means that he employ’d Were sadly incomplete. My ready help he needs would ask, Which I was prompt to give, Or else he must forego his task And let the creature live: While he, with heavy axe in hand, Struck off each slimy head, I tear’d the wound with flaming brand And laid the monster dead. 4. ’Tis sometimes good, and sometimes bad, And sometimes none at all; This in his belt the Roman had, Sharp-pointed, bright, and small. For centuries it fix’d remain’d, And might have kept so still But that a Pontiff pow’r obtain’d To change it at his will. XIMENA. MISCHIEVOUS JACK. [Illustration] I am gradually learning to estimate rightly the responsibility of having a jackdaw loose upon the premises. There is really no way of circumventing Jack’s craftiness except by keeping him shut up all day in an outdoor aviary. I feel sorry to be driven to this course, and would far rather let him roam where he pleases; but his mischievous pranks have become unendurable. I thought to-day I had made a great discovery, and that by placing a large stuffed flamingo at the open French window I should effectually frighten the jackdaw from entering. I found him in the drawing-room on my writing-table busy about some evil deed, so I held up the great stuffed bird, at which Jack cast one horrified glance and then fled precipitately out at the window as if his last hour had come. Now, I thought, by placing the flamingo near the window, I could leave the room with an easy mind. Vain hope! I came back after a few minutes and found the impertinent jackdaw hopping about as happy as a king. He had pulled to pieces a rare foreign insect I had just been setting on a piece of cork. He had overturned all the small curios he could find, had pulled all the pins out of a pin-cushion, and, worst of all, he had opened a Mudie book and torn its map and pages to ribbons. That book will have to become my property and remain a monument of Jack’s misplaced energy. It was humiliating to think how he must have chuckled at my flamingo. He had seen through the device at once and had no idea of submitting to be scared away by such a bogie.