And now forgive me for my candid zeal,
I had not said so much, but that I feel
Should you take ill what here my Muse indites,
An Ode-ling more will set you all to rights.

A CUSTOM-HOUSE BREEZE.

ONE day-no matter for the month or year,
A Calais packet, just come over,
And safely moored within the pier,

Began to land her passengers at Dover;
All glad to end a voyage long and rough,
And during which,

Through roll and pitch,

The Ocean-King had sickophants enough!

Away, as fast as they could walk or run,
Eager for steady rooms and quiet meals,
With bundles, bags, and boxes at their heels
Away the passengers all went, but one,

A female, who from some mysterious check,
Still lingered on the steamer's deck,
As if she did not care for land a tittle,
For horizontal rooms, and cleanly victual—
Or nervously afraid to put

Her foot

Into an Isle described as "tight and little."

In vain commissioner and touter,
Porter and waiter thronged about her;
Boring, as such officials only bore-

In spite of rope and barrow, knot, and truck,
Of plank and ladder, there she stuck,

She couldn't, no she wouldn't go on shore.

"But, ma'am," the steward interfered,
"The wessel must be cleared.

You musn't stay aboard, ma'am, no one don't!
It's quite agin the orders so to do-

And all the passengers is gone but you."
Says she, "I cannot go ashore and won't!"

At last, attracted by the racket
'Twixt gown and jacket,

The captain came himself, and cap in hand,
Begged very civilly to understand

Wherefore the lady could not leave the packet.

"Why then," the lady whispered with a shiver, That made the accents quiver,

"I've got some foreign silks about me pinned, In short so many things, all contraband, To tell the truth I am afraid to land,

In such a searching wind!"

UP THE RHINE.

YE Tourists and Travellers, bound to the Rhine, Provided with passport, that requisite docket, First listen to one little whisper of mine

Take care of your pocket!—take care of your pocket!

Don't wash or be shaved-go like hairy wild men, Play dominoes, smoke, wear a cap, and smockfrock it,

But if you speak English, or look it, why then Take care of your pocket!—take care of your pocket!

You'll sleep at great inns, in the smallest of beds,

Find charges as apt to mount up as a rocket,
With thirty per cent. as a tax on your heads,
Take care of your pocket! - take care of your

pocket!

You'll see old Cologne, not the sweetest of towns,

Wherever you follow your nose you will shock

it;

And you'll pay your three dollars to look at three

crowns,

Take care of your pocket!-take care of your pocket!

You'll count seven Mountains, and see Roland's Eck,

Hear legends veracious as any by Crockett;

But oh! to the tone of romance what a check, Take care of your pocket!-take care of your pocket!

Old Castles you'll see on the vine-covered hill,—
Fine ruins to rivet the eye in its socket-
Once haunts of Baronial Banditti,—and still
Take care of your pocket!-take care of your
pocket!

You'll stop at Coblence, with its beautiful views, But make no long stay with your money to stock it, Where Jews are all Germans, and Germans all Jews,

Take care of your pocket!-take care of your pocket!

A Fortress you'll see, which, as people report, Can never be captured, save famine should block it

Ascend Ehrenbreitstein-but that's not their forte, Take care of your pocket!-take care of your pocket!

You'll see an old man who'll let off an old gun, And Lurley, with her hurly-burly, will mock it; But think that the words of the echo thus run, Take care of your pocket!-take care of your pocket!

You'll gaze on the Rheingau, the soil of the Vine! Of course you will freely Moselle it and Hock it— P'raps purchase some pieces of Humbugheim

wine

Take care of your pocket!-take care of your pocket!

Perchance you will take a frisk off to the BathsWhere some to their heads hold a pistol and cock it;

But still mind the warning, wherever your paths, Take care of your pocket!-take care of your pocket!

And Friendships you'll swear most eternal of pacts,

Change rings, and give hair to be put in a locket; But still, in the most sentimental of acts,

Take care of your pocket!-take care of your pocket!

In short, if you visit that stream or its shore,
Still keep at your elbow one caution to knock it,
And where Schinderhannes was Robber of yore,
Take care of your pocket!-take care of your
pocket!

THE old Catholic City was still,
In the Minster the vespers were sung,
And, re-echoed in cadences shrill,
The last call of the trumpet had rung;
While, across the broad stream of the Rhine,
The full Moon cast a silvery zone;

And, methought, as I gazed on its shine,

66

Surely, this is the Eau de Cologne.”

I inquired not the place of its source,
If it ran to the east or the west;
But my heart took a note of its course,
That it flowed towards Her I love best-
That it flowed towards Her I love best,
Like those wandering thoughts of my own;
And the fancy such sweetness possessed,
That the Rhine seemed all Eau de Cologne !

THE KNIGHT AND THE DRAGON.

IN the famous old times,

(Famed for chivalrous crimes,)

As the legends of Rhineland deliver,

Once there flourished a Knight,

Who Sir Otto was hight,

On the banks of the rapid green river!

On the Drachenfels' crest

He had built a stone nest,

From which he pounced down like a vulture,