In the modern Sikes's style-a:
Punctilious fools prefer to _pay_;
But I at scruples smile-a.

... Ha, ha! what a fool Honesty is! and Trust, his sworn brother, a
very simple gentleman ... I understand the business, do it; to have an
open ear, a quick eye, and a nimble hand with the shears is necessary
for a (literary) cutpurse; a good nose is requisite also, to smell out
the good work of other people. I see this is the time that the unjust
man doth thrive.

* * * * *

THE WELLINGTON MONUMENT.

[Illustration]

At last! How long ago the time
When England's paltry meanness killed
Her greatest Sculptor in his prime.
And hid his work, now called sublime,
In narrow space so nearly filled!

When, using Art beyond her taste,
Her greatest Captain's tomb he wrought,
That noblest effort was disgraced,--
It seemed to her a needless waste,
The Budget Surplus was her thought.

Now may she, with some sense of shame,