THE SWEETMEAT AGE.

Long ago when the moon was one big pie For all little boys to eat, Then some of the stars were sugar-plums, And some of them raisins sweet; Then the glorious sun was a custard pudding Served up in a vast blue dish; And the whole of the sea was soda-water Half filled with ice-cream fish; The great round earth was a luscious peach, The grass was the puckery fuzz— If it doesn't seem true to all and each, Let him believe it who does— Then the mountain-peaks were chocolate drops, And the icebergs Roman punch; And the dark storm-clouds rained lemonade— People dug up the mud for lunch. When it hailed, the hailstones were fine popcorn, And pulverized sugar it snowed; And the brooks as they ran by the candy-trees With lovely root-beer o'erflowed. Ah! that was the time, in the long ago, When children worked hard, tooth and tongue; But most of them suffered from overfed stomachs, And, somehow, they all died young. R. H.