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Impromptu In The Assize Court, Nottingham,

On seeing BRET HARTE come upon the Bench.

Thanks for an hour of laughing

In a world that is growing old;

Thanks for an hour of weeping

In a world that is growing cold;

For we who have wept with Dickens,

And we who have laughed with Boz,

Have renewed the days of our childhood

With his American Coz.