Last evening it was rainy. A good many boys came into our room, and we sat in a row, and every one said some verses, or told a riddle. These two verses I send for Aunt Phebe’s little Tommy to learn. I guess he’s done saying “Fishy, fishy in the brook” by this time, Dorry said he got them out of the German.
“When you are rich,
You can ride with a span;
But when you are poor,
You must go as you can.
“Better honest and poor,
And go as you can,
Than rich and a rogue,
And ride with a span.”
This riddle was too hard for me to guess. But Aunt Phebe’s girls like to guess riddles, and I will send it to them. Mr. Augustus says that a soldier made it in a Rebel prison. Mr. Augustus is a tall boy, that knows a good deal, and wears spectacles, and that’s why we call him Mr. Augustus.
RIDDLE.
I’m one half a Bible command,
That aye and forever shall stand;
And, throughout our beautiful land,
’T is needed now to foil the traitorous band.
I’m always around,—yet they say
Too often I’m out of the way.
Thereby leading astray;
I’m decked in jewels fine and rich array.
Although from my heart I am stirred,
I can utter but one little word,
And that very seldom is heard;
My elder sister sometimes kept a bird.
Reads the riddle clear to you?
I am very near to you:
Both very near and dear—to you,
Yet kept in chains. Does that seem queer to you?
That about being “stirred from the heart” is all true. So is that about being “around.” The “Bible command,” spoken of at the beginning, is only in three words, or two words joined by “and.” This word is the first half. But I mustn’t tell you too much.