TO NUMBER 27x.

Beloved Peeler! friend and guide
And guard of many a midnight reeler,
None worthier, though the world is wide,
Beloved Peeler.

Thou from before the swift four-wheeler
Didst pluck me, and didst thrust aside
A strongly built provision-dealer

Who menaced me with blows, and cried
`Come on! come on!' O Paian, Healer,
Then but for thee I must have died,
Beloved Peeler!


The following presentiment, though he was no `waster,' may very well
have been his own. He was only half Scotch, and not at all
metaphysical:-


THE WASTER'S PRESENTIMENT

I shall be spun. There is a voice within
Which tells me plainly I am all undone;
For though I toil not, neither do I spin,
I shall be spun.