The autocrat of the breakfast table, with an intr. by G.A. Sala

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Page 194 - Fifty, and FIFTY-FIVE. Little of all we value here Wakes on the morn of its hundredth year Without both feeling and looking queer. In fact, there's nothing that keeps its youth, So far as I know, but a tree and truth.
Page 193 - Last of its timber, — they couldn't sell 'em, Never an axe had seen their chips, And the wedges flew from between their lips, Their blunt ends frizzled like celery-tips; Step and prop-iron, bolt and screw, Spring, tire, axle, and linchpin too, Steel of the finest, bright and blue; Thoroughbrace bison-skin, thick and wide; Boot, top, dasher, from tough old hide Found in the pit when the tanner died. That was the way he 'put her through.
Page 78 - This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign, Sails the unshadowed main, — The venturous bark that flings On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings In gulfs enchanted, where the siren sings, And coral reefs lie bare, Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.
Page 193 - He would build one shay to beat the taown 'n' the keounty 'n' all the kentry raoun' ; It should be so built that it couldn' break daown . — " Fur," said the Deacon, " 't's mighty plain Thut the weakes' place mus' stan the strain ; 'n' the way t' fix it, uz I maintain, Is only jest T" make that place uz strong uz the rest.
Page 78 - Year after year beheld the silent toil That spread his lustrous coil; Still, as the spiral grew, He left the past year's dwelling for the new, Stole with soft step its shining archway through, Built up its idle door, Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.
Page 231 - O'er Sappho's memory-haunted billow, But where the glistening night-dews weep On nameless sorrow's churchyard pillow. O hearts that break and give no sign Save whitening lip and fading tresses, Till Death pours out his cordial wine...
Page 204 - I always thought cold victual nice,— My choice would be vanilla-ice, I care not much for gold or land ; Give me a mortgage here and there. Some good bank-stock, some note of hand, Or trifling railroad share — I only ask that Fortune send A little more than I shall spend.
Page 26 - When legislators keep the law, When banks dispense with bolts and locks, When berries, whortle-, rasp-, and straw-, Grow bigger downwards through the box, — When he that selleth house or land Shows leak in roof or flaw in right, — When haberdashers choose the stand Whose window hath the broadest light...
Page 98 - He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged.
Page 194 - And the back-crossbar as strong as the fore, And spring and axle and hub encore. And yet, as a whole, it is past a doubt In another hour it will be worn out \ First of November, Fifty-five ! This morning the parson takes a drive.

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