“A Calendar! a Calendar! look in the Almanac, find out moonshine — find out moonshine!”—Midsummer Night’s Dream.
1.

The by-gone September,

As folks may remember,

At least if their memory saves but an ember,

One fine afternoon,

There went up a Balloon,

Which did not return to the Earth very soon.
2.

For, nearing the sky,

At about a mile high,

The A?ronaut bold had resolved on a fly;

So cutting his string,

In a Parasol thing

Down he came in a field like a lark from the wing.
3.

Meanwhile, thus adrift,

The Balloon made a shift

To rise very fast, with no burden to lift;

It got very small,

Then to nothing at all;

And then rose the question of where it would fall?
4.

Some thought that, for lack

Of the man and his pack,

’Twould rise to the cherub that watches Poor Jack;

Some held, but in vain,

With the first heavy rain

’Twould surely come down to the Gardens again!
5.

But still not a word

For a month could be heard

Of what had become of the Wonderful Bird;

The firm Gye and Hughes,

Wore their boots out and shoes,

In running about and inquiring for news.
6.

Some thought it must be

Tumbled into the Sea;

Some thought it had gone off to High Germanie

For Germans, as shown

By their writings, ’tis known

Are always delighted with what is high-flown.
7.

Some hinted a bilk,

And that maidens who milk,

In far distant Shires would be walking in silk:

Some swore that it must,

“As they said at the fust,

Have gone again’ flashes of lightning and bust!”
8.

However, at last,

When six weeks had gone past,

Intelligence came of a plausible cast;

A wondering clown,

At a hamlet near town,

Had seen “like a moon of green cheese” coming down.
9.

Soon spread the alarm,

And from cottage and farm,

The natives buzz’d out like the bees when they swarm;

And off ran the folk —

It is such a good joke

To see the descent of a bagful of smoke.
10.

And lo! the machine,

Dappled yellow and green,

Was plainly enough in the clouds to be seen:

“Yes, yes,” was the cry,

“It’s the old one, surely,

Where can it have been such a time in the sky?”
11.

“Lord! where will it fall?

It can’t find out Vauxhall,

Without any pilot to guide it at all!”

Some wager’d that Kent

Would behold the event,

Debrett had been posed to predict its descent.
12.

Some thought it would pitch

In the old Tower Ditch,

Some swore on the Cross of St. Paul’s it would hitch;

And Farmers cried “Zounds!

If it drops on our grounds,

We’ll try if Balloons can’t be put into pounds.”
13.

But still to and fro

It continued to go,

As if looking out for soft places below;

No difficult job,

It had only to bob

Slap-dash down at once on the heads of the mob:
14.

Who, too apt to stare

At some castle in air,

Forget that the earth is their proper affair;

Till, watching the fall

Of some soap-bubble ball,

They tumble themselves with a terrible sprawl.
15.

Meanwhile, from its height

Stooping downward in flight,

The Phenomenon came more distinctly in sight:

Still bigger and bigger,

And strike me a nigger

Unfreed, if there was not a live human figure!
16.

Yes, plain to be seen,

Underneath the machine,

There dangled a mortal — some swore it was Green;

Some mason could spy;

Others named Mr. Gye;

Or Holland, compell’d by the Belgians to fly.
17.

’Twas Graham the flighty,

Whom the Duke high and mighty

Resign’d to take care of his own lignum-vit?;

’Twas Hampton, whose whim

Was in Cloudland to swim,

Till e’en Little Hampton looked little to him!
18.

But all were at fault;

From the heavenly vault

The falling balloon came at last to a halt;

And bounce! with the jar

Of descending so far,

An outlandish Creature was thrown from the car!
19.

At first with the jolt

All his wits made a bolt,

As if he’d been flung by a mettlesome colt;

And while in his faint,

To avoid all complaint,

The muse shall endeavor his portrait to paint.
20.

The face of this elf,

Round as platter of delf,

Was pale as if only a cast of itself;

His head had a rare

Fleece of silvery hair,

Just like the Albino at Bartlemy Fair.
21.

His eyes they were odd,

Like the eyes of a cod,

And gave him the look of a watery God.

His nose was a snub;

Under which, for his grub,

Was a round open mouth like to that of a chub.
22.

His person was small,

Without figure at all,

A plump little body as round as a ball:

With two little fins,

And a couple of pins,

With what has been christened a bow in the shins.
23.

His dress it was new,

A full suit of sky-blue —

With bright silver buckl............