Then he flung his cloak aside, "I have come to make a bride, Of the fairest, far and wide, On the road, to London." Then she laughed at him, and chaffed, Unromantic, chaffed, and laughed; Till he thought, that she was daft, On the road, to London. [Illustration] "No!" said she "That's not the way, Parted lovers, meet to-day, 'Tis by note, or wire, they say 'On the road, to London.' "So 'twere best, thou didst by flight, Take thy footsteps, out of sight, Lest my love, per fortune, might Strike the road, to London! "We've been having shrimps and tea, He's a champion knock out; He Could knock spots off you," said she, On the road, to London. "See! my spouse, from yonder gap, Cometh like a thunder clap!" "Ho! then here's for the first lap! On the road, to London." [Illustration] [Illustration: ANTEDILUVIAN PAT O'TOOLE And all His Fleet of Sail] WHILE poking my umbrella into the cracks and crannies that serve to vary the monotonous setting of the stones of a certain Pyramid of Egypt, I scraped away a portion of mortar or cement, and was agreeably surprised, by discovering a roll, of what I fondly hoped might be a bundle of faded Bank of England notes; but on closer inspection, it proved to be a scroll of papyrus, thickly covered with curious hieroglyphics. They throw a misty light on the history of the O'Tooles, for written in a strange mingling of blank verse, and ballad metre, they purport to give a correct version of the account of the Deluge; in which disaster, it appears that a worthy ancestor of the said family played a conspicuous, and important part. An Addenda accounting for their presence in the pyramid is appended, and contains the plausible statement, that it was actually a descendant of the said O'Toole, who designed and built the tombs of the Pharoahs, and adopted this subtle means of sending his name down to these remote ages. Some savants and Egyptologists will cavil at this startling information, but I happen to be in possession of a three cornered cypher that runs thro' the composition of their architecture, which will be of convincing merit, when I have time to issue the seven folio volumes, which I am not preparing at present, in connection with this important subject. The opening line proves that the Ballad must have been composed at a much earlier period than that of the deluge.