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Begbie, Harold, 1871-1929

"The Bed-Book of Happiness"

Upon this motive only I
cannot behold a Beggar without relieving his Necessities with my Purse,
or his Soul with my Prayers; those _scenical_ and accidental
_differences_ between us, cannot make me forget that common and untoucht
part of us both; there is under these _Cantoes_ and miserable outsides,
these mutilate and semi-bodies, a soul of the same alloy with our own,
whose Genealogy is God as well as ours, and in as fair a way to
Salvation as our selves.

"PLEASE TO RING THE BELLE"
[Sidenote: _Hood_]
I'll tell you a story that's not in Tom Moore:--
Young Love likes to knock at a pretty girl's door:
So he call'd upon Lucy--'twas just ten o'clock--
Like a spruce single man, with a smart double knock.
Now, a handmaid, whatever her fingers be at,
Will run like a puss when she hears a _rat_-tat:
So Lucy ran up--and in two seconds more
Had questioned the stranger and answered the door.
The meeting was bliss; but the parting was woe;
For the moment will come when such comers must go:
So she kissed him, and whispered--poor innocent thing!--
"The next time you come, love, pray come with a ring."

THE HAPPY DEAN
[Sidenote: _Dean Hole_]
My dear Hall,--I don't like the writing of this letter. I feel as I felt
in childhood when they were measuring out the castor-oil in a spoon; or
when, in boyhood, it was suggested "that kind Mr.


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