You that I fancied my prey
(Mine was the blunder)--
Three pounds I'd back you to weigh,
Not an ounce under--
Are you, like prices to-day,
Rising, I wonder?
Triton were you among trout,
Jaw tough as leather;
I put it over your snout
Light as a feather--
Splash! and the line whizzing out
Linked us together;
Till, ere your fate I could seal,
Me you eluded;
Back came the line to the reel
(Cast not included);
Oft 'twixt the weed and the creel
Fish slip--as you did.
So, since all winter, alack!
I have bemoaned you,
Give me a chance to get back
Some of my own due
Interest earn'd on the black
Gnat that I loaned you.
Then we'll be for it, we two
(Luck to the winner!);
Meanwhile be careful what you
Take for your dinner;
Fancy confections eschew--
Blue, dun or spinner.
Scorning (you'll grant me the boon?)
Other folk's gay fly,
Under the willow till June
Sheltered and safe lie;
I shall be after you soon,
I and my May-fly.
* * * * *
"I should be very glad to have a movement started to put an
end to the extravagant, unseemly and disedifying length to
which ladies in this country have gone in adopting fashions of
dress."--_Irish Paper._
Hitherto it had been supposed that the objection to the modern modes
was their excessive brevity.
* * * * *
"Coopers Wanted, dry or tight; only Society men need
apply."--_Advt. in Daily Paper._
Inebriation is no longer popular among Society men.
* * * * *
[Illustration: MANNERS AND MODES.