TOBACCO SMOKE!
THE clouds or smoke were rising fast,
As through a college room there passed
A youth who bore, 'spite sage advice,
A "baccy"-pouch with strange device,
"Tobacco smoke!"
His brow was sad; his eye beneath
Stared on a pipe, laid in its sheath,
And in his ears there ever rung
The accents of the donor's tongue,
"Tobacco smoke!"
* * * *
"Try not the shag!" the old man said,
It is o'er strong for thy young head,
Dire its effects to those untried
Heedless he was, and but replied,
"Tobacco smoke!"
"Oh, stay," the maiden said, "and test
Our Latakia—'tis the best!"
He grasped his packet of birds'-eye,
And only muttered with a sigh,
"Tobacco smoke!"
"Beware; don't set your room alight—
The college might object—good-night!"
Such were the words the scholar spoke,
And scarcely heard through closing oak,
"Tobacco smoke!"
That Freshman by his scout was found
Lying all prone upon the ground,
And still his hand grasped like a vice
The "baccy"-pouch with strange device,
"Tobacco smoke!"
* * * *
R. C., Oxford.
College Rhymes, 1864.