HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE.
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[FUNNY FLIRTATION CARDS.]
BY FRANK BELLEW.
Fig. 1.
Charley Sparks is one of those sunshiny young fellows who occasionally come beaming upon us out of the gloom and mist of this rather foggy world. He always has a smile, and generally something new in the way of a puzzle, or a riddle, or a notion of some sort wherewith to amuse his friends. The other evening he dropped in to see us, with his usual amount of sunshine to compete with the gas-light in the parlor, but there was an extra twinkle in his eye which told me that he had something novel to communicate. There were several of the girls present, and a couple of friends, one of whom was Maggie Martin, a bright little brunette, as piquant as a French sauce, and the other a Miss Sarah Gooch, an amiable maiden lady of about forty-five. After a few words of greeting, Charley pulled from his pocket a card, of which Fig. 1 is a copy, and presenting it to Miss Gooch, asked her if she could solve the enigma. As you will see, it is a very simple rebus, which most people could readily make out.
Miss Gooch looked at it steadily for some minutes, and then slowly and deliberately said, "Eye—yes, eye."
"That's right," said Charley; "you can dot that eye."
"Eye," repeated Miss Gooch—"door—sheep. Eye—door—sheep. Well, I don't see anything in that." Then there was a pause. Charley would not help her out. "However, I'll try again: eye—oh yes, I see—a door—sheep."
"Oh no, you don't," said Charley. "You may like a mutton-chop now and then, Miss Gooch, but to adore a whole sheep—no, no."
Miss Gooch tried it again.
"Eye—a door—sheep—lamb—ram—wether—ewe. Oh, I have it: I adore you."
"Do you?" exclaimed Charley, in the most impassioned tones, as he threw himself on one knee, and seized her hand. "Then I am indeed the happiest of mortals."
A box on the ear from the laughing Miss Gooch brought him to his feet, and terminated the love scene.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 3.
Before we had all recovered from our merriment at this performance, Charley approached Maggie Martin with great deference, and handed her another card, on one side of which was inscribed hieroglyphics like those on Fig. 2, and on the other side other figures, like those on Fig. 3.
"Why, you seem to have brought a whole pack of cards with you, Mr. Sparks," said Maggie.
"A pack of nonsense you mean," replied Charley.
"Well, let us look at your nonsense."
"Oh, this is not nonsense, but the most deadly earnest."
Maggie turned the card over and over, first looking at one side and then at the other.
"Are these inscriptions taken from the Obelisk?" she queried, archly.
"No; they are copied from an inscription carved upon my heart."
"Oh, another stone, eh?"
"I wish it were a stone"—with a sigh. "But try my puzzle. I am deeply interested in it."
Maggie turned it over and over, held it edgeways this side and edgeways the other, but could make nothing of it.
"I am surprised you can not find it out," said Charley; "it is very transparent."
"Transparent? Oh, it is very transparent, is it? I see." And she held it up to the light, which, shining through the thin card, blended the two unmeaning inscriptions together so that they revealed distinctly a sentence, which she began to read:
"I lo—" Then suddenly checking herself, she said, with a laugh, "No you don't, Mr. Sparks; you don't trap me into any expression of adoration, as you did Miss Gooch. But tell me, how do you make these cards?"
"The simplest thing in the world. You take a piece of thin card-board, and outline on it in pencil any sentence you wish, as I have done 'I love you'; then you blacken portions of the letters, as I have also done, and place the card with its face to a window-pane, so that the light shining through will show what you have done on the other side. Complete the letters on the opposite side to the one on which you wrote the first part of your inscription, and the thing is done."
DOUBT.
"Shall I—or—shall I not? Perhaps it would be better to let him go."
THE SINGING LESSON.