the SPRING
Spread rose-buds to receive him.
And back he vow'd his flight he'd wing
To Heaven, if she should leave him.
But SPRING departing, saw his faith
Pledg'd to the next new comer--
He revell'd in the warmer breath
And richer bowers of SUMMER.
Then sportive AUTUMN claim'd by rights
An Archer for her lover,
And even in WINTER'S dark, cold nights
A charm he could discover.
Her routs and balls, and fireside joy,
For this time were his reasons--
In short, Young Love's a gallant boy,
That likes all times and seasons.
_New Monthly Magazine._
* * * * *
SCHOOL AND COLLEGE.
College! how different from school! Never believe a great, broad-faced,
beetle-browed Spoon, when he tells you, with a sigh that would upset a
schooner, that the happiest days of a man's life are those he spends at
school. Does he forget the small bed-room occupied by eighteen boys, the
pump you had to run to on Sunday mornings, when decency and the usher
commanded you to wash? Is he oblivious of the blue chalk and water they
flooded your bowels with at breakfast, and called it milk? Has he lost
the remembrance of the Yorkshire pudding, vulgarly called choke-dog, of
which you were obliged to eat a pound before you were allowed a slice
of beef, and of which, if you swallowed half that quantity, you thought
cooks and oxen mere works of supererogation, and totally useless on the
face of the earth? Has the fool lost all recollection of the prayers in
yon cold, wet, clay-floored cellar, proudly denominated the chapel? has
he forgot the cuffs from the senior boys, the pinches from the second
master? and, _in fine_, has he forgot the press at the end of the
school-room, where a cart-load of birch was deposited at the beginning
of every half year, and not a twig left to tickle a mouse with, long
before the end of it? He talks of freedom from care--what a negative
kind of happiness! Let him cut off his hand, he will never hurt his
nails. Let him enclose an order for all his money even unto us, and no
more will he be troubled with cares about the Stocks--no more will he be
teased with calculations on the price of grain. All that raving about
school-boys is perfect nonsense--it is the most miserable period of a
human being's life. Poor, shivering, trembling, kicked, buffetted,
thumped, and starved little mortals! We never see a large school but we
feel inclined to
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