CONTENTMENT.

BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.

"Man wants but little here below."

L

ITTLE I ask; my wants are few;
I only wish a hut of stone,

(A very plain brown stone will do,)

That I may call my own ;-
And close at hand is such a one,
In yonder street that fronts the sun.

Plain food is quite enough for me;

Three courses are as good as ten; If Nature can subsist on three,

Thank Heaven for three. Amen!

I always thought cold victual nice;
My choice would be vanilla-ice.

-

Give me a mortgage here and there, Some good bank-stock, · some note of hand,

Or trifling railroad share,

I only ask that Fortune send

A little more than I shall spend.

Honors are silly toys, I know,

And titles are but empty names;

My dames should dress in cheap attire ; (Good, heavy silks are never dear ;) — I own perhaps I might desire

Some shawls of true Cashmere, – Some marrowy crapes of China silk, Like wrinkled skins on scalded milk.

I would not have the horse I drive

So fast that folks must stop and stare; two, forty-five

An easy gait

Suits me; I do not care ;

Perhaps, for just a single spurt,
Some seconds less would do no hurt.

Of pictures, I should like to own

Titians and Raphaels three or four, I love so much their style and tone, One Turner, and no more,

(A landscape, foreground golden dirt, — The sunshine painted with a squirt.)

Of books but few, some fifty score
For daily use, and bound for wear;