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Will sure afford a much more free

Mode of communication.

I'm tantalized and cribbed and checked
In making love by letter:

I know a style more brief, direct—
And generally better!

By permission.

H. C. BUNNER.

"POSSUM "-I CAN.

HER eyes are as blue as the heart of a berg;
If tears from their channels e'er ran,

If they melted an instant, it was not in ruth
For sorrows of love or of man.

I've wondered ofttimes-she's so frostily fair— If blood in her veins really ran;

While sipping an ice I've asked myself where Ice ended and woman began.

"My heart," she once told me, “is dead as a stone,

Or missing in Nature's nice plan;

Some women, perhaps, can not live without hearts,"

Her eyes spoke a haughty "I can."

The stingiest sultan would lay at her feet
The wealth of a whole Ispahan.
Independent in fortune as well as in soul,
She scorns every suppliant man.

Her coach, of all turn-outs this year at the
Springs,

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Was drawn by the handsomest span; Her crest on its panels, a leopard passant, Her motto is "Possum "—I can.

Regarding the carriage with critical air
Up-spoke our head-waiter, black Dan:

"Some folks, maybe, can't see no difference between

Dat ting and a 'possum--I can.

"Why, dat ain't no 'possum; it's more like a cat,

Or Spot, dar, your pert black-and-tan :

I ought to know 'possums-I'se hunted 'em till

Each 'possum in Georgia knows Dan.

"Curusest ob varmints dar is in dis world Is 'possums and women," said Dan;

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'Dey's nebber so sleek, so indif'rent, and cool,

As when dey's deceibing some man.

"I 'members de fust one dat ever I cotchedIt tried de same little ole plan:

I found it like dead at the foot ob a tree;
Says I, 'No dead 'possums for Dan'-

"Was walking away when it opened one eye,
Larfed back ob its paw, and den—ran!
'Can't come it,' it said, plain as eber you
heard ;

Says I, 'Missus 'Possum, I can.'"

The tale was a short one, and not too refined, As told by our swart Caliban :

It fed, by the thought it aroused in my mind,
The fire of my hopes like a fan.

Could she play at 'possum, her heart all alive
And craving the love of a man,

Worth love and worth trust, can I credit the thought?

My heart made me answer- “I can.”

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Her soul is alive, and now tell me, my heart, Canst rise to the fate like a man,

Receiving thy doom or thy bliss from her lips?

Again I heard, "Possum-I can."

"You can love?" The answer is easily guessed

(Fit rallying-cry for a clan),

It came with a kiss, and a ring with the crest A leopard: 'twas "Possum-I can!"

LIZZIE W. CHAMPNEY.

PAST AND PRESENT; OR, ROMANCE

VERSUS REALITY.

A Duet.

HE (shutting his Froissart with a slap).

"OH, for the days of olden time,
When, true to knightly duty,

The champion roved through every clime
To win the smile of Beauty!
'Neath moonlit skies his midnight spent,
In place of ball-rooms choky,
And through triumphal arches went,
Instead of hoops at croquet!"

SHE (smiling maliciously).

"Ha, ha! nice figure you'd have made
'Mid Syria's heat and slaughter,
Who growl at seventy in the shade,
And long for seltzer-water!

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