perhaps unsightly,
Makes her face up--laces tightly,
In her form your fancy traces
All the gifts of all the graces.
Rivals none the maiden woo,
So you take her and she takes you.

All: Ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho!
Joke beginning,
Never ceases
Till your inning
Time releases,
On your way
You blindly stray,
And day by day
The joke increases!

King: Ten years later--Time progresses--
Sours your temper--thins your tresses;
Fancy, then, her chain relaxes;
Rates are facts and so are taxes.
Fairy Queen's no longer young--
Fairy Queen has got a tongue.
Twins have probably intruded--
Quite unbidden--just as you did--
They're a source of care and trouble--
Just as you were--only double.
Comes at last the final stroke--
Time has had its little joke!

All: Ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho!
Daily driven
(Wife as drover)
Ill you've thriven--
Ne'er in clover;
Lastly, when
Three-score and ten
(And not till then),
The joke is over!
Ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! ho!
Then--and then
The joke is over!

(Exeunt Scaphio and
Phantis.)

King: (putting on his crown again) It's all very well. I
always
like to look on the humorous side of things; but I do not
think I ought to be required to write libels on my own
moral
character. Naturally, I see the joke of it--anybody
would--but Zara's coming home today; she's no longer a
child, and I confess I should not like her to see my
Opera--though it's uncommonly well written; and I should
be
sorry if the Palace Peeper got into her hands--though
it's
certainly smart--very smart indeed. It is almost a pity
that I have to buy up the whole edition, because it's
really
too good to be lost. And Lady Sophy--that blameless t