The Bad Squire.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1836, 12 April 1884, Page 6 (Supplement)

The Bad Squire.

I The merry browu hares came leaping i Over the crest of the hill, "Where the clover and corn lay sleeping Under tho moonlight still. A poacher's widow sat sighing On the side of the white chalk bank, Whole under the gloomy fir-woods One spot m the ley throve rank. Sho watched a long tuft of clover, Where rabbit or hare never ran ; For its black sour haulm covered over The blood of a murdered man. She thought of the dark plantation, , And the hares, and her husband's blood, Aud the voice of her indignation Eose up to the throne of God. " I'm long past waihug and whining— I have wept too much in my life ; I've had twenty yeai s of pining As an English laborer's wife. A laborer in Christian England, "Where they cant of a Sariour s name, And yet waste men's lives like the Termin * For a few more brace of game. There' s blood on your new foreign shrubs, squire, There's blood on your pointer's feet f _ There's blood on the game you sell, squire, And there's blood on the game you eat. You have sold the laboring mau, squire, Body and soul to shame, To pay for your seat in the House, squire, And to pay for the feed of your game. You made him a poacher yourself, squire, When you'd neither give woik nor meat, And your barley-fed hares robbed the garden At our starving children's feet ; When, packed in our reeking chamber, Man, maid, mother, and little ones lay, Wlule the ram pattered in on the rotting bridebed, Aud the walls let in the day ; "When we lavjn the burning, fesst^^ [ Ou JlXemud of the cold clay floor, <<——^Eifryou parted us all for three months, squire, At the dreary workhouse door. We quarrelled like brutes, and who wonders ? What self-respect could we keep, Worse housed than your hacks and your Woi&e fed 'than your hogs and your sheep ? Our daughters, with base-born babies, Have wandered away in their shame ; If your misses had slept, squire, where they did, Your misses might do the same. Can your lady patch hearts that are breaking With hnndfuls of ooals and rice, Or by dealing out flannel and sheeting A little below cost price 'i You may tire of the jail and tho workhouse, And take to allotments and schools, But you'\ c run up a debt that will never Be paid n-3 by penny-club rules. In the season of shame and sadness, In tho dark and dreary day, When scrofula, gout, and madness Ai c eatmg your race away ; When to kennels and livened rarlets You have cas>t your daughter's bread, And, w orn out with liquor and harlots, Your heir at your feet lies dead ; When j our youngest, the mealy-mouthed rector, Let your &oul rot asleep to the graye— You will find in your God the protector Of the freeman you fancied your slaye." She looked at tho tuft of clover, And wept till her heart grew light ; Aud at last, when her passion was over, Went wandering into the night. But the merry brown hares came leaping 0 ver the uplands still, Where the clover and corn lay sleeping On th'j side of the white chalk hill. —Charles Kingslaj

AitrEMus Ward's Cottet9HlP.— The following is Artemus Ward's explanation of why he courted Bcfcsy Jane : " There were many aft'ectin' ties which made tae hanier after Betsy Jane. Her father's farm jined ourn ; their cows and own squelched theirtliirst at the same spnug ; our mares both had Btws on their foreheads ; the measles broke oilt in buth families at the same time ; our parents (Betay Jane's and mine) slept regularly ejery Sunday in the same meetm' house, and me neighbors used to observe, ' How thick the Ward's and Peasleys air.' It was a sublime sight in the Spring of the year to sec our several mothers (Betsy's and mine) with their gowns pinned up, so that they couldn't sile 'em, effecktionately bilin' soap together and aboosin' their neighbors."

Monsieur Eoger cle V made what was considered rather a sarcastic present to a pretty young lady. It was a ball of cotton, having a gold band around, upon which were these words: "Employ me diligently, and you will obtain a brilliant success." The cotton was rather scornfully flung to one side, until, having occasion to tie up a large bunch of flowers, the young lady nearly used up/the thread, and then to her surprise, she saw some' thing shining in the centre. She wa^ in* dustriously quick in unwinding that ■tyhich hid the gift, and was rewarded for her iaboi? by a most splendid emerald ring. I The bad man, diffusing the hue of hi* own spirit over the world, sees it full of trea^herjj selfishness, and deceit. The good man isi con* tinually looking for and sees noble qualities. A comparison of the quantity of solarjheat, received in the city of London and atvKew, seven miles distant, shows that the wearlj total is nearly twice as great at Keyr? a* in. London. A large proportion of t» l he sun's heat is evidently cut off by the fog/and smok« which overhang the great city. )

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