II.
My reading took me to desert islands,
And buried me deep in Arabian Nights;
Sir Walter led me amongst the Highlands,
On into the thickest of Moslem fights.
I found the elder Dumas delightful—
Before the sun had eclips'd,
And Harrison Ainsworth finely frightful,
And Fenimore Cooper far from—————————
A few years later I took to reading
The morbid stories of Edgar Poe—
Not healthy viands for youthful feeding
(And all my advisers told me so).
But, healthy or not, I enjoy'd them vastly;
My feverish fancy was nightly ———-
Upon horrible crimes and murders ghastly
Which sent me terrified off to—————-