A little frivolity for these unsettling days of the early new year.

Lewis Carroll's generational exchange may belong to Victorian times but it can still raise a smile, especially since the youthful questioner more than meets his match in his elder's replies.

FATHER WILLIAM

"You are old, Father William," the young man said,

"And your hair has become very white;

And yet you incessantly stand on your head --

Do you think, at your age, it is right?"

"In my youth," Father William replied to his son,

"I feared it might injure the brain;

But, now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,

Why, I do it again and again."

"You are old," said the youth, "as I mentioned before,

And have grown most uncommonly fat;

Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door --

Pray, what is the reason of that?"

"In my youth," said the sage, as he shook his gray locks,

"I kept all my limbs very supple

By the use of this ointment -- one shilling the box --

Allow me to sell you a couple."

(to be concluded tomorrow)