MY FAMILIAR.

J GODFREY SAXE.

3GAIN I hear that creaking step!

He's rapping at the door!—

Too well I know the boding sound

That ushers in a bore.

I do not tremble when I meet

The stoutest of my foes,

But Heaven defend me from the friend

Who comes-but never goes!

He drops into my easy-chair,

And asks about the news ;
He peers into my manuscript,

And gives his candid views;

MY FAMILIAR.

He tells me where he likes the line,
And where he's forced to grieve;
He takes the strangest liberties,-

But never takes his leave!

He reads my daily paper through
Before I've seen a word;

He scans the lyric (that I wrote),
And thinks it quite absurd;
He calmly smokes my last cigar,
And coolly asks for more;

He opens everything he sees-
Except the entry door!

He talks about his fragile health,
And tells me of the pains;

He suffers from a score of ills

Of which he ne'er complains;

And how he struggled once with death
To keep the fiend at bay ;

On themes like those away he goes

But never goes away!

301

302

MY FAMILIAR.

He tells me of the carping words

Some shallow critic wrote;

And every precious paragraph

Familiarly can quote ;

He thinks the writer did me wrong;
He'd like to run him through!

He says a thousand pleasant things-
But never says "Adieu!"

Whene'er he comes-that dreadful man-

Disguise it as I may,

I know that, like an autumn rain,

He'll last throughout the day.

In vain I speak of urgent tasks;
In vain I scowl and pout;
A frown is no extinguisher—
It does not put him out!

I mean to take the knocker off,
Put crape upon the door,
Or hint to John that I am gone

To stay a month or more.

MY FAMILIAR.

I do not tremble when I meet

The stoutest of my foes,

But Heaven defend me from the friend

Who never, never goes!

303

AUGUSTA.

J. GODFREY SAXE.

PANDSOME and haughty!"—a comment that

came

From lips which were never accustomed to

malice;

A girl with a presence superb as her name,

And charmingly fitted for love-in a palace!
And oft I have wished,-for in musing alone

One's fancy is apt to be very erratic,—

That the lady might wear-No! I never will own
A thought so decidedly undemocratic!

But if 'twere a coronet-this I'll aver,

No duchess on earth could more gracefully wear it ; And even a democrat-thinking of her

Might surely be pardoned for wishing to share it.