All this while Valentine’s Day kept courting pretty May, who sate next him, slipping amorous billets-doux
under the table, till the Dog Days {who are naturally of a warm constitution} began to bark and rage exceedingly.
April Fool, who likes a bit of sport above measure, & had some pretensions to the lady besides as being but a cousin once removed,—clapped & halloo’d them on; and as fast as their indignation cooled those mad wag’s, the Ember Days, were at it with their bellows, to blow it into a flame; & all was in a ferment: till old Madame Septuagesima {who boasts herself the Mother of the Days} wisely diverted the conversation with a tedious
tale of the lovers which she could reckon when she was young; & of one Master Rogation Day in particular, who was for ever putting the question to her; but she kept him at a distance, as the chronicle wd: tell—by which I apprehend she meant the Almanack.