You are frowning;
I don't wonder.
Reading Browning;
Hard as thunder!
Oh, excuse me;
You adore it?
You amuse me;
I abhor it.
Let me see it.
Who has taught you?
Now to me it--
Ah, I've caught you.
It _must_ be hard so
(Hence the frown?)
To read the bard so--
Upside down.
The Ice in the Punch.
The wail of the 'cello is soft, sweet, and low;
There are strains of romance in the thrumming banjo.
The violin's note--feel it float in your ear;
And the harp makes one fancy that angels are near.
The voice of a young girl can reach to the heart;
The song of the baritone--well, it is art.
The flute and the lute in gavotte--the guitar
In soft serenade--how entrancing they are!
But to all the mad millions
Who dance at cotillons
There's naught like the clink and the clank and the crunch
Of the ice in the punch.
So here's to the recipe, ancient in Spain,
And here's to the basket of cobwebbed champagne.
Again to the genius who grows the sharp spice,
But ten times to King Winter who furnishes ice;
For to all the mad millions
Who dance at cotillons
There's naught like the clink and the clank and the crunch
Of the ice in the punch.
The Tale of a Broken Heart.
She was a
Beautiful,
Dutiful,
Grand,
And rollicking queen of Bohemia,
With a cheek that was
Rosier,
Cosier,
And
As soft as a lily, and creamier.
She was always com-
pelling me,
Selling me,
I
Was her slave, but she treated me shamefully.
She went on the
Stage, was a
Rage, as a--
Why--
As a page, and they spoke of her blamefully.
And then in the
Papers her
Capers were
Writ.
I love her no longer,--I swear it;
But I oft spend a
Dollar and
Holler and
Sit
Through her antics. Oh, how can I bear it?
Where did you get it?
Pray, ladies, ye of wondrous clothes,
That draw admiring "ahs!" and "ohs!"
And "By Joves!" as men chat,
Permit me,--love the right bestows,--
Where did you get that hat?
The very hat, sweet maids, I mean,
So often now on Broadway seen,
That is so very flat;
Black as a rule, but sometimes green.
Where did you get that hat?
In shape an oyster-dish,--the crown,--
A ribbon bristles up and down,
Quite striking--yes, all that;
The sweetest, neatest thing in town!
Where _did_ you get that hat?