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, While he, in exultation, 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,- Had slipped down with the doll that lay 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? 1 JACK. Hist! That's a pike. Look-nose against the river 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. |