Miscellaneous.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XX, Issue 2061, 29 April 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

Miscellaneous.

Barbara Fane. The gay young widow, Barbara Fane, With her springy stop, Came down the lane, And won my heart ; The more’s the pity, She stormed the gates And took the eity. Very pretty, Is Barbara FaneWise and witty ; Is mine the gain ? 1 sat in the window And sighed with pain— I sighed, for there Came down the lane A gallant youth With Barbara Fane. She raised her eyes They are deep as night— And bewildered me With their moeking light I When he looked in her face, Where the rose did seek The lily to chase From her oval cheek, She shook her tresses Of rippling gold With a charm, though felt, Can never be told I Oh, Barbara I Beautiful Barbara Fane, I'll close this window Over the lane, And draw the curtains Over my heart i And still if I can, This stinging smart I And never, 0 pitiless Barbara Fane, Shall your mocking eyes. With their rapturous bane, Look on the luckless Bard again 1

Baby Tigers-— ln a certain menagerie there arc six as lithe and brightly marked tigers as anybody ever saw. One morning, at daylight, the keepers were surprised by an unusual commotion among the cat animals. The men got out strong ropes lassoes and nets, believing that some of the more formidable of the wild beasts were out of their dens. They approached the wide stairs with caution anil entered the room. The tiger den was a scene of fierce confusion, and the other animals shared the excitement. The men approached to the front of the den, and were met with demonstrations of anger. Lying close to the wall in one corner was a huge liengal tiger, and at her side a pair of beautifully marked cubs, with eyes closed like young kittens. With cries of wonder the men gazed at the treasures which had been born during the night. Still they could not understand why all the wild beasts should seem so restless. One of the keepers, following the eye of a huge panther, shouted, — “ Boys, look I one has got out and is on the door 1” One cub had crept through the bars of the cage and tumbled out and wandered around until it had tired out and gone to sleep. When one of the men carefully picked it up it uttered a feeble cry. The scene that followed made those men, used to danger as they are, white with fear. The tigers bent the bars of their cages, and the lions roared in unison with the shrieks of the other ani mats. It was a little pandemonium. To attempt to put the cub through the bars into the cage from which it had fallen was certain death to whoever undertook it, for with their long fore-arms and their curved claws the tigers would have torn to shreds whatever had becnin reach. Finally one of the cooler-headed keepers took the little speckled, sightless beast, and, climbing up the end of the den, opened a small hole left for ventilation and dropped the cause of all the trouble at the feet ot its mother. She tenderly placed it beside her other offspring, lay down herself, and in two minutes the cunning-looking little kitten was taking its nourishment and every thing soon quieted down.

A Treasure.— Miss Marcct writes thus in Lady Holland's Life of Sydney Smith I was coming downstairs one morning when Mr. Smith suddenly said to Bunch [the name of one of his servants], who was passing, " Bunch, do you like roast duck or boiled chicken I" Bunch had probably never tasted either the one or the other in her life, but answexed, without a moment’s hesitation, " Boast duck, please sir," and disappeared. I laughed. '* Vou may laugh," said he, “ but you have no idea of the labor it has cost me to give her that decision of character. The Yorkshire peasantry are the quickest and shrewdest in the world, but you can never get a direct answer from them ; it you ask them even their own names they always scratch their heads and say, ‘ A’s sur' ai don’t knaw, sir but I have brought Bunch to such perfection that she never hesitates nowon any subject, however difficult. lam very strict with her. Would you like to hear her repeat her crimes ? She has them by heart, and repeats them every day.” ‘‘Come here, Bunch 1" calling out to her, “come and repeat your crimes to Mrs. Marcet;" and Bunch, a clean, fair, squat, tidy little girl about ten or twelve years of age, quite as a matter of course, as grave as a judge, without the least hesitation, and witli a loud voice, began tg repent—-' Platesnatching, gravy-spilling, door-slamming, blue-bottle lly-cntcbing, and curtsey-bob-bing." “ Explain to Mrs. Marcet what bluebottle fly-catching is." " Standing with ray mouth open and not attending, sir." " And what is curtsey-bobbing/” "Curtseying to tbe centre of the earth, please sir." " Hood girl I now you may go. She makes a capital waiter, I assure you; on state occasions Jack liobinson, my carpenter, lakes off his apron and waits too, and does pretty well, hut be sometimes naturally makes a mistake and sticks a gimlet into the bread instead of a fork."

Evolution-

Two flying forms, in pathless depths of night, Watched the great spheres about them wheel and flame, And many a planet where it swept with might Uound many a central sun, they named by name.

They spoke of races whom the gradual spell Of wisdom won and raised from crime and vice, How hate and sin had made this world a hell, And love had made that world a paradise 1 And while they singled, either near or far, Bright orb from orb in heaven's untold abyss, At last one pointed to a certain star, And said, with dubious gesture : ‘What of this?"

"Earth it is called," his musing mate replied, “By those dint swarms its continents begot, ’Tis a young star; and they that there abide Shall not wear wings like us for centuries vet

Mme- P-. whose early history is somewhat mysterious, receives on Thursdays. A voung lawyer one evening narrated to her guests a story and applied to its heroine the epithet, "a piqunnle eeret/e.'' "('oeolte.’ exclaimed Mum. I’ . " is a wort no one ever uses ill inv ~0/e" I’* ■■ nolle true.' retorted the lawyer, 'hut we all mm it a-<.. 01 as we pel outside." .VJI