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Show B I. SOLILOQUY OF A SUMMER RE-H RE-H SORT PORCH HEN. TO he, or not to be a porch hen: That is 'the question. H Whether 'tis nobler to let alone H The reputations of my fellow-m fellow-m boarders, B Or to help in the manufacture of i scandal R Concerning them, as we sit and rock, H And by spreading it among the other ' B' Members of the brood, ruin them. Hk To lie: to peep: and more; B. ! And by thus peeping say "ve saw r This and that thing that will shock 1 The other hens; 'tis a consummation K' Devoutly to be wished. To lie, to peep. H, To peep perchanco to really see H' something H Ay, there's the rub! H For in that peep what sights may be m revealed, B, Of which wo may speak in eautious B' whispers, B And roll, as delicious morsels, under bW our tongues, B' When we are cackling on the porch H again. B For what real hen could live and H bear the secret EVJ Of the man who drank too much; H'( The wifo who met another man sub WAV rosa; R The pangs of guilty love, the dress-Bfl'1 dress-Bfl'1 maker's delay, BAv The insolence of parvenus and the Bfl spurns EVJ , That men accord to worn-out flames, Bfl 'Who in their turn seek a quietus to B mako B With a bare bodkim. Who could such B secrets koep K And grunt and sweat with their pos-ftVJ pos-ftVJ session, H But that the half-dead spark of de Bfl cency H Is asserted in our better selves, H And makes us rather lock our bills H Than start the tattle going. H , Thus conscience does (make cowards BB3 of us alli HBw And the inherent desire to cackle Bfl'1 Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of R honesty, B And opportunities for spreading salac- ! ious bits Are by its currents turned away And lose the name of gossip. The Parodist. ii |