The lovely Zebra, Asia’s painted ass,
    ’Stead of a den, and bed of straw possessor,
  Down to old Cambridge should have had a pass,
    To fill the office of some wise professor;
  Then, had he shown each antiquated quiz,
  His Zebra auricles were long as his.

  Thus had we all obtained a proper station,
    ’Twere in one day of happiness to cruise. 
  And I had never written my vexation
    At being palac’d in the Royal Mews. 
  The reason for which conduct I’m at loss,
  O, Mr. Cross, ’tay’nt you, but I am cross.

  I really thought thou had’st been much genteeler,
    Polite-o was thy grandfather, remember
  Thou wert a Merchant Tailor, and a stealer
    To school in younger days, in cold December,
  Then did thy fingers, shiv’ring like a Russ,
  Make thee to feel—­thou could’st not feel for us.

  At Charing Cross, the Golden Cross is thine
    No longer; why, then hurry us so near it,
  We do not in the little tap-room dine,
    Where Greenwich cads and Walworth jarvies beer it,
  This Mews is cold to the Exchange’s glow,
  Belle Sauvage Cross, thou’rt beau sauvage, I trow.

  My usage is the best, I don’t deny,
    Thou’st fee’d the keeper, and he likes to feed us,
  But, then the situation I decry,
    But crying’s useless—­who the deuce will heed us? 
  Then, reader would you listen to my wail,
  Come, and but see me, “I’ll unfold my tail.”

P.T.

* * * * *

CALCULATING CHILD.

(Translated from the last number of the Revue Encyclopedique.  By a Correspondent.)

(For the Mirror.)

A boy, seven years of age, whose name is Vincent Zuccaro, has excited the public attention at Palermo for some time past.  This child, born of poor and uneducated parents, possesses an extraordinary talent for calculation; his mind seizes, as it were, by instinct, all the varied combinations of numbers, which he unravels with equal facility.  The various reports which had been spread throughout the city, respecting his talents, appeared so incredible, that a public meeting of literary men was expressly convened, for the purpose of examining his pretensions.  The meeting was held on the 30th of January last, at the Academy Del Buon Gusto, and consisted of upwards of four hundred persons, among whom were observed some of the most distinguished literati and influential persons of the city.  Two Professors of Mathematics were stationed near the child, to prevent collusion or fraud, and to take minutes of the questions proposed, with the answers returned.  A great number of questions were proposed, which Vincent Zuccaro answered with a facility that excited general admiration.  We shall only extract two of the most simple, as some of the questions would be hardly intelligible to general readers: