Shakespeare's his name. You've heard of Shakespeare, haven't you, Mr.
Pedagog?" he added.
Then, as there was no answer, he read the verse, which was as follows:
SETTLED.
Yes! Shakespeare wrote the plays--'tis clear to me.
Lord Bacon's claim's condemned before the bar.
He'd not have penned, "what fools these mortals be!"
But--more correct--"what fools these mortals are!"
"That's not bad," said the Poet.
[Illustration: "'WE WOOED THE SELF-SAME MAID'"]
"Thanks," returned the Idiot. "I wish you were an editor. I wrote that
last spring, and it has been coming back to me at the rate of once a
week ever since."
"It is too short," said the Bibliomaniac.
"It's an epigram," said the Idiot. "How many yards long do you think
epigrams should be?"
The Bibliomaniac scorned to reply.
"I agree with the Bibliomaniac," said the School-master. "It is too
short. People want greater quantity."
"Well, here is quantity for you," said the Idiot. "Quantity as she is
not wanted by nine comic papers I wot of. This poem is called:
"THE TURNING OF THE WORM.
"'How hard my fate perhaps you'll gather in,
My dearest reader, when I tell you that
I entered into this fair world a twin--
The one was spare enough, the other fat.
"'I was, of course, the lean one of the two,
The homelier as well, and consequently
In ecstasy o'er Jim my parents flew,
And good of me was spoken accident'ly.
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