te him,
Member of Laughing Club I write him.

"Myself on life's broad sea I throw,
Sail with its joy, or stem its woe,
No other friend to take my part,
Than careless head and honest heart.
My purse is drained, my debts are paid,
My glass is run, my will is made,
To beauteous Cam. I bid adieu,
And with the world begin anew."

Following the example of his friend Biglow, Mr. Prentiss, on
leaving college, prepared a will, which afterwards appeared in one
of the earliest numbers of the Rural Repository, a literary paper,
the publication of which he commenced at Leominster, Mass., in the
autumn of 1795. Thomas Paine, afterwards Robert Treat Paine, Jr.,
immediately transferred it to the columns of the Federal Orrery,
which paper he edited, with these introductory remarks: "Having,
in the second number of 'Omnium Gatherum' presented to our readers
the last will and testament of Charles Chatterbox, Esq., of witty
memory, wherein the said Charles, now deceased, did lawfully
bequeath to Ch----s Pr----s the celebrated 'Ugly Knife,' to be by
him transmitted, at his collegiate demise, to the next succeeding
candidate;... and whereas the said Ch-----s Pr-----s, on the 21st
of June last, departed his aforesaid '_college life_,' thereby
leaving to the inheritance of his successor the valuable legacy,
which his illustrious friend had bequeathed, as an _entailed
estate_, to the poets of the university,--we have thought proper
to insert a full, true, and attested copy of the will of the last
deceased heir, in order that the world may be furnished with a
correct genealogy of this renowned _jack-knife_, whose pedigree
will become as illustrious in after time as the family of the
'ROLLES,' and which will be celebrated by future wits as the most
formidable _weapon_ of modern genius."

"A WILL;

BEING THE LAST WORDS OP CH----S PR----S, LATE WORTHY AND MUCH
LAMENTED MEMBER OF THE LAUGHING CLUB OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY, WHO
DEPARTED COLLEGE LIFE ON THE 21ST OF JUNE, 1795.

"I, Pr-----s Ch----s, of judgment sound,
In soul, in limb and wind, now found;
I, since my head is full of wit,
And must be emptied, or must split,
In name of _president_ APOLLO,
And other gentle folks, that follow:
Such as URANIA and CLIO,
To whom my fame poetic I owe;
With the whole drove of rhyming sisters,
For whom my heart with rapture blisters;
Who swim in HELICON uncertain
Whether a petticoat or shirt on,
From vulga