Page:The Goddesses in Congress on Olympus-on-Spree.djvu/25

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Children are apt to be too loud and pert At dinner; so they come in at dessert (If they are good) to have some cake and wine.— And, come! reflect upon it, Proserpine, I think you'll own, on looking at it twice, Your've cut your protégée too large a slice.—

Juno.

Then, Bessarabia,—it's a shabby trick The pocket of a close ally to pick.

Proserpine.

Juno, 'tis not for you such things to say; I've put a rather good thing in your way. Am I to fare so far in foreign lands, And then go home again with empty hands? Shall I to feed poor Cerberus prepare, And,—like Dame Hubbard—find the cupboard bare?

Venus.

Nay,—the Parisian Treaty still can bind:— A sop for Cerb'rus you must elsewhere find.

Minerva.

Oh! that's all past and gone,—you speak too late— "Judgment of Paris," now, is out of date.

Venus.

Aye!—"to the Fairest" seems, now quite absurd; "Prize to the most Unfair" seems more the word. Thetis, I hold by you!

Minerva.

In times of need,