THE WHITE PERCH. 405 



written I would much like to know it, for I assure you that 

 none was intended; believing, with the servant in Romeo and 

 Juliet (Act i., Sc. 2), "that the shoemaker should meddle with 

 his yard, and the tailor with his last, the fisher with his pen- 

 cil, and the painter with his nets," I will put the banjo in its 

 case and no longer mar the harmony of the night, lest some 

 one say with Hotspur: 



"I had rather hear a brazen can'stick turned, 

 Or a dry wheel grate on the axle-tree." 



The ditty has been hoarsely sung, the curtain rung down; 

 the lights are out Good Night! 



