Papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes, and prism are all very good words for the lips, especially prunes and prism.  You will find it serviceable in the formation of a demeanour.

Nor do composers receive much attention, but amongst the characters we may mention Mr. Skimpole (B.H.), who composed half an opera, and the lamp porter at Mugby Junction, who composed ‘Little comic songs-like.’  In this category we can scarcely include Mrs. Kenwigs, who ’invented and composed’ her eldest daughter’s name, the result being ‘Morleena.’  Mr. Skimpole, however, has a further claim upon our attention, as he ‘played what he composed with taste,’ and was also a performer on the violoncello.  He had his lighter moments, too, as when he went to the piano one evening at 11 p.m. and rattled hilariously

That the best of all ways to lengthen our days
Was to steal a few hours from Night, my dear!

It is evident that his song was ‘The Young May Moon,’ one of Moore’s Irish Melodies.

The young May moon is beaming, love,
The glow-worm’s lamp is gleaming, love,
How sweet to rove
Through Morna’s grove
While the drowsy world is dreaming, love!

Then awake—­the heavens look bright, my dear! 
’Tis never too late for delight, my dear! 
And the best of all ways
To lengthen our days
Is to steal a few hours from the night, my dear!

Silas Wegg’s Effusions

We first meet Silas Wegg in the fifth chapter of Our Mutual Friend, where he is introduced to us as a ballad-monger.  His intercourse with his employer, Mr. Boffin, is a frequent cause of his dropping into poetry, and most of his efforts are adaptations of popular songs.  His character is not one that arouses any sympathetic enthusiasm, and probably no one is sorry when towards the end of the story Sloppy seizes hold of the mean little creature, carries him out of the house, and deposits him in a scavenger’s cart ‘with a prodigious splash.’

The following are Wegg’s poetical effusions, with their sources and original forms.

Book I, Ch. 5.

‘Beside that cottage door, Mr. Boffin,’ from ‘The Soldier’s Tear’

Alexander Lee

Beside that cottage porch
A girl was on her knees;
She held aloft a snowy scarf
Which fluttered in the breeze. 
She breath’d a prayer for him,
A prayer he could not hear;
But he paused to bless her as she knelt,
And wip’d away a tear.

Book I, Ch. 15.

    The gay, the gay and festive scene,
    I’ll tell thee how the maiden wept, Mrs. Boffin.

From ‘The Light Guitar.’ (See Index of Songs.)

Book I, Ch. 15.

‘Thrown on the wide world, doomed to wander and roam.’  From ‘The Peasant Boy’