(Which she showed me, I think, by mistake). And I conned o'er the forms and the fashions, Till the faded old shapes seemed to wake All the ghosts of my passed-away "passions "; From the days of love's youthfullest dream, There was Lucy, who "tiffed" with her first, For she told me to wait till my "berd" came; Pale Blanche, who subsisted on salts; Blonde Bertha, who doted on Schiller; Poor Amy, who taught me to waltz; Plain Ann, that I wooed for the "siller"; All danced round my head in a ring, Like "The Zephyrs" that somebody painted, All shapes of the feminine thing Shy, scornful, seductive, and sainted, To my Wife, in the days she was young "Not at all!"-I benignly retort. Full stop, and a Sermon. Yet think, There was surely good ground for a quarrel,She had checked me when just on the brink Of-I feel-a remarkable MORAL. THE SCREEN IN THE LUMBER ROOM YES, here it is, behind the box, That puzzle wrought so neatly That paradise of paradox We once knew so completely; The year when . . You remember? Look, Laura, look! You must recall This wonderful Swiss waterfall, And here the dandy cuirassier You thought was "such a Darling!" Your poor dear Aunt! you know her way, And here's the "cot beside the hill" The day that. . But I doubt if still Too damp-by far! She little knew, Those evenings when she slumbered through "The Prince of Abyssinia," That there were two beside her chair Who both had quite decided To see things in a rosier air Than Rasselas provided! Ah! men wore stocks in Britain's land, A1 DAISY'S VALENTINES LL night through Daisy's sleep, it seems, Have ceaseless "rat-tats" thundered; All night through Daisy's rosy dreams Have devious Postmen blundered, Delivering letters round her bed,Mysterious missives, sealed with red, And franked of course with due Queen's-head,— While Daisy lay and wondered. But now, when chirping birds begin, Yes, there they are! With quirk and twist, (Save Grandpapa's dear stiff old "fist," But which is his, her young Lothair's,— |