318

LITTLE GERTY.

Half my grief could not be told

Were I without her.

Gerty scolds me if I roam,

Wonders what I want from home,

With sly glances

Looks that seem to me to say,
"I have waited all the day;

You were very wrong to stray,
Naughty Francis."

If I whisper, "We must part,"
Gerty, sighing, breaks her heart;

Awkward, very.

When I say that I'll remain,

All her smiles return again,

Like warm sunshine after rain;

We are merry.

If my sweetheart knows her mind,

Love is mad as well as blind.

Little Gerty

*

LITTLE GERTY.

Says she means to marry me ;

She is only six, you see ;

I-alas, that it should be!

Am two-and-thirty.*

Reprinted, by permission, from Cassell's Magazine.

319

THE HUSBAND'S SONG.

CHARLES SWAIN.

AINY and rough sets the day,

There's a heart beating for somebody; I must be up and away,

Somebody's anxious for somebody.

Thrice hath she been to the gate,—

Thrice hath she listened for somebody;

'Midst the night, stormy and late,

Somebody's waiting for somebody.

There'll be a comforting fire,

There'll be a welcome for somebody;

One, in her neatest attire,

Will look at the table for somebody.

THE HUSBAND'S SONG.

321

Though the stars fled from the west,
There is a star yet for somebody,
Lighting the home he loves best,

Warming the bosom of somebody.

There'll be a coat o'er the chair,

There will be slippers for somebody';

There'll be a wife's tender care,—

Love's fond embracement for somebody;

There'll be the little one's charms,—

Soon 'twill be wakened for somebody;

When I have both in my arms,

Oh! but how blest will be somebody

A MATCH.

ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE.

F love were what the rose is,

And I were like the leaf,

Our lives would grow together

In sad or singing weather,

Blown fields or flowerful closes,

Green pleasure or grey grief;

If love were what the rose is,
And I were like the leaf.

If I were what the words are,
And love were like the tune,
With double sound and single
Delight our lips would mingle,