THE WHITEBAIT-EATERS.
"COURAGE!" they said, and pointed through the gloom;
"There is a haven in yon fishful clime."
At dinner-time they came into a room,
In which it seemèd all day dinner-time.
All in the midst the banquet rose sublime,
Whose menu excellent no tongue might blame;
And round about the board, without their Prime,
Without their prime delight and chiefest fame,
The mild-eyed muddle-headed whitebait-eaters came.
They sat them down upon the yellow chairs,
And feasted gaily as in days of yore;
And sweet it was to jest of late affairs,
Of Ward and Power and Cat; but evermore
Most weary seemed the Session almost o'er,
Weary Hibernian nights of barren seed.
Then some one said, "We shall come here no more!"
And all at once they cried, "No more, indeed!
The ballot shall release; we will no longer lead!"