Where the heavenly sunshine can’t manage to spring,—

And, talking of that, I’ve a notion, by Jing!

Let we ourselves mine out some coal lumps to-day

To show to the folks,—which I think, by the way,

Would be a poetical thing.”

So they filled up their pockets, untried by a doubt,

And in the hotel they unveiled ’em all out;

But their glances grew strange as they turned o’er the weight,

Till one of them shouted, “By thunder, it’s slate!”

Yet the youngest among them had dealered in coal,