A MERRY BLUE-EYED LADDIE

MERRY blue-eyed laddie goes laughing

A through the town,

Singing, “Hey, but the world is a gay, gay, place!"

And every little lassie smooths her tumbled locks a-down,

And brings out all her dimples and hides away her frown,

And lays aside her broom and mop, the bonnie boy to chase,

Singing, "Hey, but the world is a gay, gay place!"

But away the blue-eyed laddie goes to seek another

town,

Singing, "Hey, but the world is a gay, gay place!" Then every dimple vanishes, and back comes every frown,

And every little lassie folds away her Sunday gown,

With tear-drops trickling sadly down her woful

little face,

Sighing, "Hey, but the world is a sad, sad

place!"

Juliet Wilbour Tompkins.

DANCE TIME

T'S I live in a very wise town
As all wise people know:

They read, they write, they read all day As orchard-trees do grow.

Said I, I was a young thing then,

And a foolish young thing, too,-
"I will not spend my little life thus;
There's much I'd rather do.

"For I would rather look at you This way, with happy looks,

Than lose the stars from my

With poring over books.

two eyes

"I'd rather far be red and white

For stupid folks to see

Than write nine books for little dull worms

To eat them, leisurely.

"And I would rather have it said

When all my days are through,
'O she was good to see and hear
And say Good-morning to!'

"When learning makes you white and red And fresh as west-winds blow,

I may spend sun and candle-light

To learn what they all know.

"But O, the wise in this wise town,
They have no longer prime.

And there are fewer wise men, now,
Than once upon a time !"

Josephine Preston Peabody Marks.

I

HOW LIKE A WOMAN

WANTED you to come to-day

Or so I told you in my letter-
And yet, if you had stayed away,
I should have liked you so much better.
I should have sipped my tea unseen,

And thrilled at every door-bell's pealing,
And thought how nice I could have been
Had you evinced a little feeling.

I should have guessed you drinking tea
With someone whom you loved to madness;
I should have thought you cold to me,
And revelled in a depth of sadness.
But, no! you came without delay—
I could not feel myself neglected:
You said the things you always say,
In ways not wholly unexpected.

If you had let me wait in vain,
We should, in my imagination,
Have held, what we did not attain,
A most dramatic conversation.

Had you not come, I should have known
At least a vague anticipation,

Instead of which, I grieve to own,
You did not give me one sensation.

Caroline and Alice Duer.

CU

A VIGNETTE

UPID, playing blind man's buff,
Seized my Psyche's floating tresses.
Here is silken clue enough

To dispense with any guesses.
This is Psyche's golden fleece:
She's my prisoner, past release.
But the lookers-on declare
Love was caught in Psyche's hair.

Caroline Duer.