• Translated by Charles Timothy Brooks

    AH, how oft we read or hear of
    Boys we almost stand in fear of!
    For example, take these stories
    Of two youths, named Max and Maurice,
    Who, instead of early turning
    Their young minds to useful learning,
    Often leered with horrid features
    At their lessons and their teachers.
    Look now at...

  • Translated by Charles Timothy Brooks

    TO most people who have leisure
    Raising poultry gives great pleasure;
    First, because the eggs they lay us
    For the care we take repay us;
    Secondly, that now and then
    We can dine on roasted hen;
    Thirdly, of the hen’s and goose’s
    Feathers men make various uses.
    Some folks like to rest...

  • Translated by Charles Timothy Brooks

    WHEN the worthy Widow Tibbets
    (Whom the cut below exhibits)
    Had recovered, on the morrow,
    From the dreadful shock of sorrow,
    She (as soon as grief would let her
    Think) began to think ’t were better
    Just to take the dead, the dear ones
    (Who in life were walking here once),
    And in a still...

  • Translated by Charles Timothy Brooks

    THROUGH the town and country round
    Was one Mr. Buck renowned.
    Sunday coats, and week-day sack-coats,
    Bob-tails, swallow-tails, and frock coats,
    Gaiters, breeches, hunting-jackets;
    Waistcoats, with commodious pockets,—
    And other things, too long to mention,
    Claimed Mr. Tailor Buck’s attention....

  • Translated by Charles Timothy Brooks

    MAX and Maurice! I grow sick,
    When I think on your last trick.
    Why must these two scalawags
    Cut those gashes in the bags?
    See! the farmer on his back
    Carries corn off in a sack.
    Scarce has he begun to travel,
    When the corn runs out like gravel.
    All at once he stops and cries:
    “...