Page:Letters of Life.djvu/386

374 To draft a constitution for a society in a distant State, whose object is to diminish the reluctance of young people to the writing of compositions.

A poem requested, to accompany a piece of worsted embroidery, intended as a present to a friend at the North.

To be umpire of a baby-show in the city of New York.

A funereal hymn for a minister when he should die, he being now well, and preaching as usual.

To correct poetry, transmitted in a large envelope, send it to some paying periodical with such recommendations as may secure its insertion, and forward the gains to one who prefers to remain anonymous, giving only three fictitious letters for an address, with the number of a box at a distant post-office.

A monody for the loss of a second wife, fortified by the argument that I had composed one at the death of the first.

A poem, with which to take leave of a district-school "in a thriving village," where the teacher had officiated for the greater part of a winter.

Epistle from a stranger, saying his wife was likely to die, and had a young babe, and wishing some poetry to be written in such a way that it would answer for mother and child, should both be taken by death.

To turn a love-story into verse, "as lengthy as I could," though to read the obscure chirography in