Dressed perticler, jes’ fu’ you;

Reckon I’d a’ bettah wo’

My ol’ ragged calico.

Aftah all de pains I’s took,

Cain’t you tell me how I look?

Speak up, Ike, an’ ’spress yo’se’f.

—Copyright by Dodd, Mead & Co., and used by arrangement.

WHEN DE CO’N PONE’S HOT

By Paul Laurence Dunbar

Dey is times in life when Nature