Sugar and rum a drug, and mice and moths
The sole consumers of my good broad cloths-
Happy?-why, cursed war and racking tax

Have left us scarcely raiment to our backs.".
"In that case, Seignior, I may take my leave;
I came to ask a favour-but I grieve

"Favour ?" said John, and eyed the Sultaun hard, "It's my belief you came to break the yard!—

But, stay, you look like some poor foreign sinner,-
Take that, to buy yourself a shirt and dinner."-
With that he chuck'd a guinea at his head ;
But, with due dignity, the Sultaun said,—
"Permit me, sir, your bounty to decline;

A shirt indeed I seek, but none of thine.

Seignior, I kiss your hands, so fare you well."

“Kiss and be d―d,” quoth John, “ and

go

to hell!"

XVII.

Next door to John there dwelt his sister Peg,

Once a wild lass as ever shook a leg

VOL. VIII.

When the blithe bagpipe blew-but soberer now,
She doucely span her flax and milk'd her cow..
And whereas erst she was a needy slattern,
Nor now of wealth or cleanliness a pattern,
Yet once a-month her house was partly swept,
And once a-week a plenteous board she kept.
And whereas eke the vixen used her claws,
And teeth, of yore, on slender provocation,
She now was grown amenable to laws,
A quiet soul as any in the nation ;
The sole reniembrance of her warlike joys
Was in old songs she sang to please her boys.
John Bull, whom, in their years of early strife,
She wont to lead a cat-and-doggish life,

Now found the woman, as he said, a neighbour,
Who look'd to the main chance, declined no labour,
Loved a long grace and spoke a northern jargon,
And was dd close in making of a bargain.

XVII.

The Sultaun enter'd, and he made his leg,
And with decorum curtsied sister Peg;
(She loved a book, and knew a thing or two,
And guess'd at once with whom she had to do.)
She bade him "sit into the fire," and took
Her dram, her cake, her kebbock from the nook ;
Asked him " about the news from eastern parts;
And of her absent bairns, puir Highland hearts!
If peace brought down the price of tea and pepper,
And if the nitmugs were grown ony cheaper ;-
Were there nae speerings of our Mungo Park-
Ye'll be the gentleman that wants the sark?
If ye wad buy a web o' auld wife's spinning,
I'll warrant ye it's a weel-wearing linen."

XIX.

Then up got Peg, and round the house gan scuttle, In search of goods her customer to nail,

Until the Sultaun strain'd his princely throttle,

And hollow'd,-" Ma'am, that is not what I ail. Pray, are you happy, ma'am, in this snug glen ?""Happy?" said Peg; "What for d'ye want to ken? Besides, just think upon this by-gane year,

Grain wadna pay the yoking of the pleugh.".

"What

say you to the present ?"-"Meal's sae dear, Tomak their brose my bairns have scarce aneugh.""The devil take the shirt," said Solimaun, "I think my quest will end as it began. Farewell, ma'am; nay, no ceremony, I beg "Ye'll no be for the linen then?" said Peg.

XX.

Now, for the land of verdant Erin,

The Sultaun's royal bark is steering,

The emerald Isle where honest Paddy dwells,
The cousin of John Bull, as story tells.

For a long space had John, with words of thunder,

Hard looks, and harder knocks, kept Paddy under,

Till the poor lad, like boy that's flogg'd unduly,
Had gotten somewhat restive and unruly.
Hard was his lot and lodging, you'll allow,
A wigwam that would hardly serve a sow ;
His landlord, and of middlemen two brace,
Had screw'd his rent up to the starving place;
His garment was a top-coat, and an old one,
His meal was a potato, and a cold one;

But still for fun or frolic, and all that,

In the round world was not the match of Pat.

XXI.

The Sultaun saw him on a holiday,

Which is with Paddy still a jolly day:

When mass is ended, and his load of sins

Confess'd, and Mother Church hath from her binns

Dealt forth a bonus of imputed merit,

Then is Pat's time for fancy, whim, and spirit!

To jest, to sing, to caper fair and free,

And dance as light as leaf

upon the tree.