The boy, it seemed, to add a force To words found unavailing, Had pushed a striped and spotted horse Where now it stuck, stiff-legged and straight, Chattered some half-articulate Excited explanation. Meanwhile, the girl, with upturned face, Had lifted it, as rain at night The eyes had lost their listless way,- She only, yearning upward, found Ah, tyrant Time! you hold the book, We, sick and sad, begin it ; You close it fast, if we but look Pleased for a meagre minute; You closed it now, for, out of sight, Some warning finger beckoned; Excunt both to left and right;— Thus ended Act the Second. ACT THE THIRD. Or so it proved. For while I still And lo, once more appeared the head, Flushed, while the round mouth pouted; "Give Tom a kiss," the red lips said, In style the most undoubted. The girl came back without a thought; If more restraint had not been taught For these your code was all too stiff, Then on the scene,-by happy fate, And bore him sourly off, despite The girl stood silent, with a look Then, with a sudden gesture took And, passing in, I saw her press It made the dull room brighter, The Gladiator almost gay, And e'en "The Lancet" lighter. AN AUTUMN IDYLL "Sweet Themmes ! runne softly, till I end my song." Push the boat in, and throw the rope ashore. Jack, hand me out the claret and the glasses; Here let us sit. We landed here before. FRANK. Jack's undecided. Say, formose puer, Bent in a dream above the water wan," Shall we row higher, for the reeds are fewer, There by the pollards, where you see the swan? JACK. Hist! That's a pike. river Look-nose against the Gaunt as a wolf,--the sly old privateer ! Enter a gudgeon. Snap,-a gulp, a shiver ;Exit the gudgeon. Let us anchor here. FRANK (in the grass). Jove, what a day! Black Care upon the crupper Nods at his post, and slumbers in the sun ; Half of Theocritus, with a touch of Tupper, Churns in my head. The frenzy has begun. LAWRENCE. Sing to us then. Damotas in a choker, FRANK. Sing you again. So musical a croaker Surely will draw the fish upon the hooks. |