IF YOU HAVE SEEN GOOD reader! if you e'er have seen, Floats wild along the winding shore: Thomas Moore. CIRCUMSTANCE THE ORANGE Ir ripen'd by the river banks, Where, mask and moonlight aiding, Dons Blas and Juan play their pranks, Dark Donnas serenading. By Moorish damsel it was pluck'd, By swain 'twas then in London suck'd- He could not know in Pimlico, That I should reel upon that peel, And-wish them at the devil! Frederick Locker-Lampson. Optimism ELEGY THE jackals prowl, the serpents hiss 445 Arthur Guiterman. OUR TRAVELLER If thou would'st stand on Etna's burning brow, Would'st tempt all deaths, all dangers that may be- This vast round world, I say, if thou wouldst view it— Then, why the dickens don't you go and do it? Henry Cholmondeley-Pennell. OPTIMISM Be brave, faint heart, The dough shall yet be cake; Be strong, weak heart, The butter is to come. Some cheerful chance will right the apple-cart, The devious pig will gain the lucky mart, Loquacity be dumb, Collapsed the fake. Be brave, faint heart! Be strong, weak heart, The path will be made plain; Be brave, faint heart, The bore will crawl away. The upside down will turn to right side up, Be brave, faint heart, The jelly means to jell; Be strong, weak heart, The hopes are in the malt. The wrong side in will yet turn right side out, What ends well's well. Be brave, faint heart! Newton Mackintosh. THE DECLARATION "TWAS late, and the gay company was gone, Of orange-leaves, and sweet verbena came The dark-eyed, spiritual Isabel Was leaning on her harp, and I had stay'd He Came to Pay And with the fervor of a lip unused To the cool breath of reason, told my love. Besought her, that this silent evidence 447 N. P. Willis. HE CAME TO PAY THE editor sat with his head in his hands The clamor for copy was scorned with a sneer, "Won't somebody come with a dollar to cheer Just then on the stairway a footstep was heard And the flickering hope that had been long deferred And there entered a man with a cynical smile Who remarked, as he tilted a sorry old tile To the back of an average head: "I have come here to pay "-Here the editor cried: "You're as welcome as flowers in spring! Sit down in this easy armchair by my side, A lemonade dashed with a little old wine And a dozen cigars of the best . . . The visitor drank with a relish, and smoked Till his face wore a satisfied glow, And the editor, beaming with merriment, joked And then, when the stock of refreshments was gone, In accents distorted somewhat by a yawn, "My errand up here is to pay-" But the generous scribe, with a wave of his hand, And the visitor, wearing a singular grin, Seized the heaviest half of the fruit, And the juice, as it ran in a stream from his chin, Washed the mud of the pike from his boot. Then, mopping his face on a favorite sheet The visitor lazily rose to his feet With the dreariest kind of a sigh, And he said, as the editor sought his address, In his books to discover his due: "I came here to pay-my respects to the press, And to borrow a dollar of you!" Parmenas Mix. |