not a jot did he care.

When smart EDDARD SAILL got that cask in his wherry,
He cleaned it out--partly--with swiggings not small,
And with his companions--what wonder?--made merry;
Madeira's a wine that's not tippled by all.
One fancies one hears 'em a laughing and cheering,
Says EDDARD, "My boys, this is better than beering!
A Waterman's life would be free from all care
If he often dropped on treasure trove like that there."

And yet but to think now how strangely things happen!
They copped him for "larceny by finding,"--that's all!
But SAILL couldn't read, and the jury was kindly,
So EDDARD got off, though his chance appeared small.
Now would this young Waterman keep out of sorrow,
No derelict casks let him--shall we say, borrow?
Madeira is nice, but you'd best have a care,
Before swigging the wine, that it's yours fair and square!

* * * * *

OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.

_The Childhood and Youth of Dickens_, a sort of short postscript to
FORSTER's Life, very well got up by its publishers HUTCHINSON & Co.,
will interest those who for the third or fourth time are going through
a course of DICKENS.

[Illustration]

The Baron is an amateur of pocket-books and note-books. The best
pocket-book _must_ contain a calendar-diary, and as little printed
matter, and as much space for notes, as possible. No pocket-book
is perfect without some sort of patent pencil, of which the
writing-metal, when used on a damp surface, will serve as well as do
pen and ink on ordinary paper. Such a pocket-book with such a pencil
the Baron has long had in use, the product of JOHN WALKER & Co., of
Farringdon House. It should be called _The Walker Pocket-book, or
Pedestrian's Companion_; for, as "He who runs may read," so, with
this handy combination, "He who walks may write." The Baron is led to
mention this _a propos_ of a novelty by T.J. SMITH AND DOWNES, called
_The Self-registering Pocket Note-book_, a very neat invention, _qua_
Note-book only, but of which only one size has the invaluable patent
pencil. The ordinary pencil entails carrying a knife, and, though
this is good for the cutler--"I know that man, he comes from
Sheffield"--yet it is a defect which is a constant source of worry
to the ordinary note-taker. Otherwise, Messrs. SMITH AND DOWNES'
artfulness in making the pencil serve as a marker, so that the latest
note can at once be found, is decidedly ingenious,