Chapter III

FROM MR. RUFUS FOX TO HIS COUSIN REYNARD.

FRIDAY.

Dear Cousin, just a line
To ask if you will come to dine
(Informally, you know) with me
To-morrow afternoon at three.
Now don’t refuse, whate’er you do,
I have a treat in store for you:
A charming goose (and geese, you know,
Do not on all the bushes grow!)
A dream of tenderness in white,
A case of “hunger at first sight.”
I know, old boy, you’ll not be deaf
To _this_ inducement.

Yours,
R. F.

P. S.--Miss Goose agrees to be
Beside the hollyhocks at three!