All of these things are told at Tavistock town even to this day; and if
you go thither, you may hear them for yourself.
But I say again, as I said at first: if one could
only hold one's tongue as to what one sees,
one would be the better for it.
[Illustration: YE SONG OF YE GOSSIPS. This is a full page illustrated
poem depicting: the three old maids gossiping at a table, the two old
maids gossiping as the other leaves, and the last old maid sitting
alone.]
YE SONG OF YE GOSSIPS
1
One old maid,
And another old maid,
And another old maid--that's three--
And they were agossiping, I am afraid,
As they sat sipping their tea.
2
They talked of this,
And they talked of that,
In the usual gossiping way
Until everybody was black as your hat,
And the only ones white were they.
3
One old maid,
And another old maid,--
For the third had gone into the street--
Who talked in a way of that third old maid,
Which never would do to repeat.
4
And now but one
Dame sat all alone,
For the others were both away.
"I've never yet met," said she, with a groan,
"Such scandalous talkers as they."
5
"Alas! and alack!"
"We're all of a pack!
For no matter how we walk,
Or what folk say to our face, our back
Is sure to breed gossip and talk."
H. PYLE
[Illustration: A victim to Science.
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