XXII. THE COLD-WATER MAN.

BY JOHN G. SAXE.

John Godfrey Saxe, poet and journalist, was born in Vermont, in 1816, and died in New York, in 1887. In 1843 he was admitted to the bar, but his fondness for literature soon led him into journalism. He was editor of the Burlington Sentinel for six years, and in it first appeared many of his poems. He was very popular before lyceums, and read some of his longer poems, as "The Money King" and "Progress," to delighted audiences. Besides his punning poems were many more serious; as "I'm Growing Old," "Little Jerry," and "Treasures in Heaven."

1. It was an honest fisherman,

I knew him passing well,
And he lived by a little pond,

Within a little dell.

2. A grave and quiet man was he, Who loved his hook and rod,-So even ran his line of life,

His neighbors thought it odd.

3. For science and for books, he said

He never had a wish,

No school to him was worth a fig,
Except a school of fish.

4. He ne'er aspired to rank or wealth,
Nor cared about a name,

For though much famed for fish was he,
He never fished for fame.

5. Let others bend their necks at sight
Of Fashion's gilded wheels,

He ne'er had learned the art to "bob "
For anything but eels.

6. A cunning fisherman was he,

His angles all were right;

The smallest nibble at his bait

Was sure to prove

66 a bite."

7. All day this fisherman would sit
Upon an ancient log,

And gaze into the water, like
Some sedentary frog;

8. With all the seeming innocence,
And that unconscious look,
That other people often wear
When they intend to "hook."

9. To charm the fish he never spoke,-
Although his voice was fine,

He found the most convenient way
Was just to drop a line.

10. And many a gudgeon of the pond,
If they could speak to-day,

Would own, with grief, this angler had
A mighty taking way.

11. Alas! one day this fisherman
Had taken too much grog,

And being but a landsman, too,
He couldn't keep the log.

12. 'Twas all in vain with might and main
He strove to reach the shore ;

Down - down he went, to feed the fish
He'd baited oft before.

13. The jury gave their verdict that
'Twas nothing else but gin

Had caused the fisherman to be
So sadly taken in ;

14. Though one stood out upon a whim,
And said the angler's slaughter,
To be exact about the fact,

Was, clearly, gin-and-water!

15. The moral of this mournful tale,
To all is plain and clear,-

That drinking habits bring a man
Too often to his bier;

16. And he who scorns to "take the pledge,"
And keep the promise fast,

May be, in spite of fate, a stiff

Cold-water man at last!

I. Note: John G. Saxe is the Thomas Hood of America; and his Cold-Water Man" and "The Briefless Barrister" are as rich in

punning wit as are Hood's "Faithless Sally Brown" and "Nellie Gray."

The pun is not the highest form of wit, but, when it is skillfully employed, it adds greatly to the gayety of a company. In this poem there is a double meaning in some phrase of nearly every stanza. Look out for it, and give the direct and implied meaning.

1.

XXIII. EARLY RISING.

BY JOHN G. SAXE.

"God bless the man who first invented sleep!"
So Sancho Panza said, and so say I;

And bless him also that he didn't keep

His great discovery to himself, nor try
To make it as the lucky fellow might
A close monopoly by patent right.

2. "Rise with the lark, and with the lark to bed,"
Observes some solemn, sentimental owl.

Maxims like these are very cheaply said;
But, ere you make yourself a fool or fowl,
Pray just inquire about his rise and fall,
And whether larks have any beds at all.

3. The time for honest folks to be abed
Is in the morning, if I reason right;
And he who can not keep his precious head
Upon his pillow till it's fairly light,
And so enjoy his forty morning winks,
Is up to knavery, or else he drinks.

4. Thomson, who sung about the "Seasons," said It was a glorious thing to rise in season; But then, he said it — lying—in his bed

At ten o'clock A.M. — the very reason

He wrote so charmingly. The simple fact is,
His preaching wasn't sanctioned by his practice.

5. 'Tis, doubtless, well to be sometimes awake, — Awake to duty and awake to truth ;

But when, alas! a nice review we take

Of our best deeds and days, we find, in sooth,
The hours that leave the slightest cause to weep
Are those we passed in childhood—or asleep.

6. So, let us sleep, and give the Maker praise.

I like the lad who, when his father thought
To clip his morning nap by hackneyed phrase
Of vagrant worm by early songster caught,
Cried, "Served him right! it's not at all surprising!
The worm was punished, sir, for early rising."

I. Note: (4) James Thomson, a British poet; born in Scotland in 1700 and died in England in 1748. "The Seasons" is the title of his best-known poem.

II. Questions and Suggestion : (1) Who was Sancho Panza and in what famous book can you read of him?

(1) What is meant by the phrase, "a close monopoly by patent right"?

(2) "Some solemn, sentimental owl," what figure of speech is

here used?

(6) What is the "hackneyed phrase" referred to in this stanza? Point out what you consider humorous in this selection.