200

MY PARTNER.

I give a shrug, as if to say,

'Twas purely an affair of chance; He coughs in quite a quiet way— But, oh, the lightning of his glance!

Perchance I play a lively king,

When swiftly on the monarch's face (Before I dream of such a thing)

My bold opponent puts an ace.
The luck is theirs, and such a tide
Is quite impossible to stem;
My partner turns his head aside,

And mournfully observes, "Ahem!"

At length I gradually lose

All sense of what we are about;
With little time to pick or choose,
I play a card when twelve are out.

I know it's utterly absurd,

And frankly feel we cannot win;
My partner never says a word,

But kicks me hard upon the shin.

MY PARTNER.

What matters that?

One little graze

Will only last a week or so;
And what are six or seven days

Of poulticing to undergo?
But, when I wildly dash away,
More desperately than before,

My partner swears he 'll never play
With such an idiot any more.

201

NOT A MATCH.

HENRY S. LEIGH.

ITTY, sweet and seventeen,

Pulls my hair and calls me "Harry;"

Hints that I am young

Wonders if I wish to marry.

Only tell me what reply

Is the best reply for Kitty? She's but seventeen-and I— I am forty-more 's the pity.

and green,

Twice at least my Kitty's age
(Just a trifle over, maybe)—

I am sober, I am sage;

Kitty nothing but a baby.

NOT A MATCH.

She is merriment and mirth,

I am wise and gravely witty; She's the dearest thing on earth,

I am forty-more's the pity.

She adores my pretty rhymes,

Calls me "poet" when I write them;

And she listens oftentimes

Half an hour when I recite them.

Let me scribble by the page

Sonnet, ode, or lover's ditty; Seventeen is Kitty's age

I am forty-more's the pity.

203

TO MY GRANDMOTHER.

[Suggested by a Picture by Mr Romney.]

FREDERICK LOCKER

HIS relative of mine

Was she seventy-and-nine

When she died?

By the canvas may be seen

How she looked at seventeen

As a bride.

Beneath a summer tree

Her maiden reverie

Has a charm;

Her ringlets are in taste

What an arm! and what a waist

For an arm!