THE YOUTH’S CABINET.

 

cions that we put these contributions on
quarantine. It is because they belong
to a class occupying a place pretty near
the boundary line dividing the articles
to be accepted and the articles to be re-
jected. On this account the quarantine
ground in our bureau is located, for the
sake of convenience, just midway be-
tween the two pigeon-holes before nam-
ed. The quarantine articles are served
much as they serve bills in congress.
They have to be read three times, in
order to pass. And to tell the truth,
their final fate is very like that of these
congressional bills. Many of them never
pass to a third reading.

The bureau has another pigeon-hole
still, and this is labeled “Unread.” This
is a repository of all sorts of things,
good, better, best—bad, worse, worst.
Here are “black spirits and white, blue
spirits and gray.” It is an odd jumble,
we do assure you—a perfect chaos.
Sometimes, especially when its contents
have been unexamined for a week, it re-
quires a pretty respectable amount of
patience and good humor to review it.

We say these things partly by way
of apology, and partly by way of en-
couragement—of apology for our appa-
rent want of attention to the different
articles submitted to us—of encourage-
ment to those who have sent articles
remaining a good while unpublished ;
for it is no certain proof that an article
is rejected because its publication is de-
ferred.

We hope to hear often from corres-
pondents who have favored us hereto-
fore, and wish we could persuade many
others to write who now modestly de-
cline writing, for fear they could not
interest our readers, but who, neverthe-

35

 

less, have much more talent than they
dream of.

 

CHARADE NO. I.

My first is a particle easy to write,
And easy to spell in the word, ,

Yet often we know ’tis with stubbornness dight,
Whether meeting the eye, or when heard:

Three letters it counteth, and syllables one,
Yet ’tis frequently hard to pronounce,

The tongue that can otherwise volubly run,
Begins here to stammer and flounce ; *

No word that the school-boy so quickly will seize,
When he wishes to frame an excuse;

No word that so surely the critic will please,
When he brings in a flaw or misuse.

Say ‘ Yes’ to a thing—then annex still my first,
And all you’ve affirmed is made null;

Say ‘No’ to a thing—add my primo, as erst,
Who'd take such negation were dull.

My second is one of those ornaments bright,
Which nature gave mortals to prize,
An ornament Conon saw waving in light,
High honored ’mid hosts of the skies.
Its fashion or form may be varied, I ween,
‘As much as the climes where ’tis born;
In rings or in waves it may often be seen,
Or threaded like tassels of corn.
Its hue may be black as the brow of the night,
Or golden like rays of the sun,
Or gray like the tinge of the soft morning light,
Ere the day-god his course has begun.

My whole is a prop, and great castles of note
Without it could never have stood,
It has held the dikes firm on Holland’s great
moat,
And stemmed back the tides of her flood ;
It has strengthened the muniments circling a
town
Where armies in vain spent their force ;
It has braved with its frontlet artillery’s frown,
And sent back his bolts to their source ;
Yet I'll laud it no more, lest incautious_I find
Its name shineth clear to your eyes,
And a riddle you know, is worth nought to the
mind, , :
If it faileth in pleasing surprise.
LOUIS.
VLINT, MICH.