I think I hear you mutter, then, While through the sand-heaps wading: 'Well, let me once get home again, And deuce take all crusading!'" HE. "You heartless thing! but you have ne'er And you my chosen maiden!" SHE. "O Fred, you goose! I ne'er could bide Unseen behind a grating, Nor bear forever at my side A prim duenna waiting. And then this face you say you prize, HE (fiercely). "I'd like to see him try it!" SIIE. "Then, too, in that stern age, you know, No opera, ball, nor fashion, No lovely sleighing in the snow, HE. "Of course, that's the thing you require! But men had then a chance, dear, To win their spurs through gore and mire In Palestine or France, dear: And when the stubborn fray was done, SHE. "Pawned the spurs his strife had won, To buy their Sunday dinner!" HE (angrily), "Too bad, by Jove! of all I say You will make fun-" SHE. "Poor fellow! He sees en beau our fathers' day, Your knights, good sir (whose spurs of gold "But never mind, dear Fred; for, though I sometimes like to tease you, I'd never say a word, you know, That really could displease you; And then-” HE (ecstatically). "The ring and curate!" DAVID KER. FREE, OR CAGED. A Cousinly Duet. FLORA (with significant emphasis). SEE, birdie! here's your seed and cake, Come, trim your yellow plumes and make You're wiser far than some I know, So be it. FRANK (defiantly). "Home and comfort" I Can leave to those who need 'em ; Mine the wide earth, the open sky, The wanderer's life of freedom! And FLORA. Better far at home to stay Than burn abroad or shiver; There's nothing there can match our bay, Or beat our Hudson River! FRANK (wth profound irony). Forth, then, O Frank! in vent'rous bark Round Coney Island sailing, |