I caught a brief glimpse in the Park
Of those loved eyes and lips.

27

I rushed on madly through the crowd, Who tried my coat to grab,

I shouted out in accents loud;

She-vanished in a cab!

28

Still it was joy to feel her nigh,
To breathe the same sweet air;
And I acknowledged with a sigh
That Heaven had heard my prayer.

29

Once more we met in virgin white
She seemed arrayed for cloister;

But oh! the horror of the sight!
She clutched a huge fat oyster!

30

Her eyes, dilating, beamed with bliss,
Her jaws she opened wide,
And down the fathomless abyss
I saw the monster glide.

31

What happened next I cannot tell; A film came o'er each eye;

Vision of Fairy-land, farewell!

Alas! it's all a lie!

(A Valentine.)

I

I DREAMT-alas! 'twas but a dream

I was in a balloon,

Which in its upward course did seem

To travel towards the moon.

2

And in the car along with me

Were three angelic creatures, Whom I discovered soon to be

Perfect in form and features.

3

I thought what sport we would enjoy
Together in the clouds,

Free from the noise and base alloy
Of vulgar earthly crowds.

4

And as we up and up advanced,

We now and then peeped down,

And through our opera glasses glanced Upon Boulogne's fair town.

5

Outside a house in "Rue l'Ecu"
We spied a female mob

Gazing at a good man and true,
Who seemed to sit and sob.

6

I marvelled why so good a man
Should thus sit down to cry;

And my companions began

To look ashamed and sigh.

7

Then suddenly I recognised

Their once familiar faces

As those of friends most highly prizedMy own "three Boulogne graces!"

8

Forthwith I scribbled a brief note:

"Dear friend! don't be alarmed; The relatives on whom you doat

Are safe-and won't be harmed.

9

"They're only going to the moon
To get a change of air ;

I'll bring back to you very soon
Each pretty truant fair!"

ΙΟ

I dropped the note, and saw it fall

Close to his very toes;

Which made him start, and loudly bawl,

And cock aloft his nose.

II

He raised his hands in great amaze,
His wife waved hers to him;
Then we got shrouded in a haze,
And all around grew dim!

12

So, having nothing else to do,
Pray deem it not amiss.

If I confess ('twixt me and you)

The dear things thought it no more crime

Than though I were their brother;