36 SELECT PUETRY

And his lordship declared he would raiher not
meet

So doubtful a person as young BiTTER-sWERT.

Sir Micuaztmas Daisy was asked to appear,

But was gone out of town for best part of the year;

And though he was sent for, Narcissus declined

Out of pique, and preferred to keep sulking behind ;

For, having beheld his fine form in the water,

He thought himself equal to any flower’s daughter,

‘ And would not consent to increase a parade,

The hero of which he himself should have made.

Dr. CaMOMILE was to have been of the party,

But was summoned to town to old Alderman
Hearty.

Old Axog, a worthy respectable don,

Could not go in the clothes that just then he had on,

And his tailor was such a slow fellow, he guessed

That it might be a century before he was dressed.!

Excuses were sent, too, from very near all

The ladies residing at Great Green-house Hall,

Who had been so confiued, were so chilly and
spare,

It might cost them their lives to be out in the air,

The Sensitive Piant hoped her friend would
excuse her,

Tt thrilled every nerve in her frame to refuse her,

But she did not believe she had courage to view

The solemn transaction she’d summoned her to.

Widow Watt had a ticket, but would not attend,

For fear her low spirits should sadden her friend ;

1 Im allusion to the vulgar error, that the aloe requires a
hundre years to arrive at maturity