48 HOME AMUSEMENTS.

Within my house some ghostly fathers stand,
Taking first-fruits and tithes without demand ;
In robes of virgin innocence array’d,

As white as priests in new-wash’d surplice clad,
Yet they are said, like others in the land,

To have an evil heart and griping hand.

 

RIDDLE C.

WO brothers we are, yet can’t hope to be saved ;
From our very first day to our last we're enslaved;
Our office the hardest, and food sure the worst,
Being cramm’d with warm flesh till we’re ready to burst;
Though low is our state, even kings we support,
And at balls have the principal share in the sport.

 

RIDDLE CI.
W ITH you, ye lovely fair, whose charms impart,

Or pain or pleasure to the wounded heart ;
With you ofttimes o’er spacious plains I rove,
O’er daisied meads or in the shady grove ;
Oft am I fondled, clasp’d within your arms—
A kind preservative to guard your charms.