SECUNDUM HARTY.
["I have even gone so low as 1d. a course ... with enough success as to elicit effusive eulogies from some distinguished literary persons ..."—Mr. Ernest Hart in "Where are the Cooks?"—Daily Graphic, Oct. 18.]
Oh! where are the Cooks; where on earth can they be?
Pray, hark to the Housekeeper's pitiful moan.
Mr. HART seems to know, and he tells us, with glee,
Of a plan which is his, and is his, too, alone.
It's a plan for a dinner, that's easily shown
To be cheap, and of pleasure the joy-giving source,
'Tis a wonderful plan—hear the epicure groan—
It costs just exactly one penny a course.
The dinner's Hartistic. Sweet HART says that he
Had a meal fit to soften the heart of a stone,
There were guests men of letters, and lofty degree—
Who wore pleased, and not only saw fit to condone,
But who ransacked each country, land, continent, zone,
For encomiums of praise, till they really grew hoarse.
But would they have done so, had only they known
It cost just exactly one penny a course?
Yes, a penny a head. It's not easy to see
How it's done for the price of a bun or a scone.
When the Mistress and Cook find it hard to agree,
And the former of these is provokingly prone
With the latter to pick a most terrible bone,
When it seems that disaster must follow perforce,
Oh! whisper them this in a Hart rending tone—
It costs just exactly one penny a course!
L'ENVOI.
O Host, if all other ideas have flown,
Remember this plan as a final resource,
Be Harty! Be Earnest! Make his plan your own!
It costs just exactly one penny a course!
THE REAL ART OF BOOK-KEEPING.—Never to lend!
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