skly rubbed on the trousers-leg and kept in
the pocket of the recipient for the rest of the season as a "coaxer." To
receive a smile over the footlights from one of the company also brings
luck.

GRAVE, GAY, AND EPIGRAMMATIC.

PAYING THE PIPER.

By Virginia Woodward Cloud.

The Piper sat by the river, his tireless pipe in his hand,
But ere the sun set and the white stars met
He scratched with a stick on the sand.
"My bills are due," quoth the Piper, "and now they pay," quoth he,
"Who danced and played from the sun into shade
Now render account to me.

"Here is one for a year," quoth the Piper; "a year of love's delight;
A heart that is dead and a soul unwed
Shall cancel a debt so trite!
I need not dun," quoth the Piper--and laughed, but nobody heard,
A chill in the air, and a shudder somewhere--
"They will render without one word.

"And this for my maddest playing"--oh, he wrote as he chuckled and
laughed--
"I will make my dole an immortal soul;
They shall drain where they only quaffed!"
So, he did his sum in addition, till the rose and the star had met,
But although he tried to thrust it aside
One name lay unchallenged yet.

Complacently, knave and sinner, apportioned he each his due,
But when it was o'er there remained one more,
And its pattern the Piper knew.
"Rascal or thief," mused the Piper, "I play for their dancing and
smile,
They have their way for a little day,
I have mine after a while.

"I can score each knave," quoth the Piper, "in Life's ill-sorted
school,
For they take and they take their greed to slake,
But I am no match for the Fool!
For he pays as he goes," frowned the Piper, "pain, laughter, passion of
tears!
He claims no pelf from Life for himself,
But gives his all without tears.

"The rest of my dancers laugh not, and I hold each one as a tool,
But he pays as he goes, be it rapture or woes,
And I have no bill for the Fool!
He loves and he lives," frowned the Piper, "and such poor returns
suffice,
For he cries '_Voila le diable!_' and gives himself as the price!"
Then, with chagrin and reluctance, as the star sank into the pool,
The Piper made claim on each separate name,
But receipted in full--for the Fool.

_The Bookman._

MARK TWAIN'S RESPONSE.