"See how it rains! We can-not go
Our walk a-cross the fields; and so,
Since Tom and Et-tie Holmes are come,
And cous-in Fred has brought his drum,
And some can sing, and o-thers play,
We'll have a con-cert here to-day.
You, Tom, must in the mid-dle stand,
And mark the time, with stick in hand;
You, bro-ther Ben, the tongs must take,
For they will good tri-an-gles make;
Hal clicks the 'bones,' and Em-me-line
Will beat her lit-tle tam-bour-ine,
And cous-in Fred will drum a-way,
And Kate the con-cer-ti-na play.
All must at-tend to Tom; and mind
None play too fast, nor lag be-hind;
And then, I'm sure, we all shall see
How grand a con-cert this will be,
And say this is the wis-est way
To spend this wet Oc-to-ber day."


[Illustration: The long-billed Snipe fre-quents our clime
About the chil-ly au-tumn time.]

[Illustration: The Ti-ger, from his hid-den lair,
Springs on the tra-vel-ler un-a-ware.]

[Illustration: The U-rano-sco-pus hides a-mong
The mud, and an-gles with its tongue.]