Page:New winter evening's companion, of fun, mirth, and frolic.pdf/23

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definitely inferior to Mr. T's original and authentic performance.

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                       A strange and most wonderful Sıght.
                 I saw a peacock; with a fiery tail
                 I saw a blazing comet; pour down hail
                 I saw a cloud; wrapt with ivy round
                 I saw an oak; creeping on the ground
                 I saw a pismire; swallow up a whale
                 I saw the sea; brimful of ale
                 I saw a Venice glass; fifteen feet deep
                 I saw a well; full of men's tears that weep
                 I saw wet eyes; all of a flaming fire
                 I saw a house; bigger than the moon and higher,
                 I saw the sun. Even at midnight,
                 I saw the man who saw this dreadful sight.
                                       ---
                               A Chinese Anecdote.
 The last Emperor of China was one of the greatest monarchs of his age, and for nothing more celebrated than the vigour and strictness of his justice; but he was warm in his pursuits of pleasure, and impatient of interruption, when his mind was intent upon it.
 The Viceroy of one of the provinces of the last empire, that lay most remote from the imperial city, had wrongfully confiscated the estate of an honest merchant, and reduced his family to the extremest misery. The poor man found means to travel as far as to the Emperor's court, and carried back with him a letter to the Viceroy, commanding him to restore the goods which he had taken so illegally.
 Far from obeying this command, the Viceroy sent the merchant into prison: but he had the