[Illustration]
O Pyrrha! say what youth in "blazer" drest,
Woos you on pleasant Thames these summer eves;
For whom do you put on that dainty vest,
That sky-blue ribbon and those _gigot_ sleeves?
"_Simplex munditiis_," as Horace wrote,
And yet, poor lad, he'll find that he is rash;
To-morrow you'll adorn some other boat,
And smile as kindly on another "mash."
As for myself--I'm old, and look askance
At flannels and flirtation; not for me
Youth's idiotic rapture at a glance
From maiden eyes: although it comes from thee.
* * * * *
THE EXCURSION SEASON.--_First Passenger_ (_poetical_). "Doesn't the
sight o' the cerulean expanse of ocean, bearing on its bosom the
white-winged fleets of commerce, fill yer with----"
_Second Ditto._ "Fi---- not a bit of it." (_Steamer takes a slight
lurch!_) "Quite the contrary!"
[_Makes off abruptly!_
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[Illustration: "LIFE'S LITTLE IRONIES"
(Cheerful passage in the life of a Whitsuntide Holiday maker)]
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