A

LITTLE STINGS

FOREWORD

REVIEWER sat in his arbour

with a parcel of small poets,

trying to find reasons for saying something pleasant about each of them.

And by and by he lit upon a chaste, vellum-and-gilt duodecimo, on page 5 of which he read: "To the Critics. Be indulgent. I write my poems because they come; and they are now given to the world at the

LITTLE STINGS

earnest solicitation of my friends. For the peck of faults in this book I blush; but haply some poor rhyme of mine may ease the aching heart of

“Wife!”

roared the reviewer,

“bring me my crabtree cudgel!”

禁

LITTLE STINGS

A PUT UP JOB

A

MAN made a Job out of mar

ble. And after many terrible

years it was finished.

And one day it turned to the man and said to him: "Do you know that there is a great deal more Job about you than ever there was about me?"

A

LITTLE STINGS

TRIAL MARRIAGE

MAN married a fair woman and

had great joy of her for a year;

when it chanced that he suffered re

verses and had not much money:

And being brought unto meagre

chiffons and serviceable hats, the fair

woman grew surly and cold, and at

length broke out into reproaches, and

packed her trunks, and would go

home to her mother.

Then the man said to her, "My

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child, I am astonished; for though Adversity is a taxing housemate, yet hath she ever lent a peculiar tenderness to wifely love; and this you may read in all the books."

"Fiddle-de-de!" snapped the fair woman; "the sooner you learn that the facts of life are not published at a dollar and a half, the better will be

your chances of attaining wisdom."