The Gathering Storm.

Mamma is a judge of divorces,
Sister Anne is a learned Q.C.,
Eliza is great upon horses,
And Dora a thriving M.D.
Aunt Jane is a popular preacher,
Aunt Susan a dealer in stocks,
While Father, the gentlest old creature,
Attends to the family socks.

Aunt Polly's a marvel of knowledge,
With any amount of degrees,
She's Master or head of some college—
I forget whether Corpus or Caius—
Aunt Nell is the eminent counsel
Who pleads at the criminal bar,
And I feed the canary with groundsel
For I'm learning to be a Papa.

I'm to marry a girl in the City,
She allows me a hundred a year
To dress on, and make myself pretty,
And keep me in baccy and beer.
The duties?—Oh, as for the duties,
You can possibly guess what they are;
And I warrant the boys will be beauties
That are destined to call me Papa.

"A Song of the Twentieth Century." By Anonymous, Punch, or the London Charivari, 7/14/1894.