"They've made the babes at infant schools so very wise indeed,
"That they can read before they speak, and write before they read:
"They're wiser than their grandmothers! you hear the people say,
"I can't survive this awful shock;—this cruel 'Settling Day.'"
While thus the crone did make her moan, I pitied her full sore,
And much I strove to comfort her, when she had given o'er;
I begg'd of her to list to me, and I'd be bound to say,
Some snug abuses I would find, without a "Settling Day."
For dirty courts and narrow lanes, I told her not to fret;
To 'mind us of the good old times, there was a plenty yet: