JEAMES. "DULL SESSION! DULL SEASON!--THINGS BAD IN THE
CITY!--HINFLUENZA ALL HOVER THE SHOP; AND, NOW THE HEMP'ROR'S GONE,
THE SOONER _WE'RE_ HORF THE BETTER!!"]

* * * * *

A NEW ELECTION "LAY."

Oh, young Mrs. BRAND has gone down to the East!
To give the Electors a musical feast,
And save her fine treble she weapons has none;
Yet she means with that voice that the seat shall be won.
So good at a lay, at a ballad so grand,
There never was dame like the young Mrs. BRAND!

All boldly she's entered the Cambridgeshire halls,
'Mid the squires, and the parsons, the farmers, and thralls!
Said DUNCAN, the foeman, "My friends, on my word,
Of a stranger proceeding I never have heard.
I don't wish to be rude, but I _can't_ understand
What you mean by this singing, oh young Mrs. BRAND!"

"You need not suspect me," the lady replied;
"I care not how flows the electoral tide,
I merely have come down to Wisbech to-day
To sing a few stanzas, trill one little lay.
I am tired of long speeches, Home-Rule I can't stand,
But I _do_ enjoy singing"--quoth young Mrs. BRAND.

So lovely her voice, so bewitching her grace,