THE LAUGHING GIRL.

Lines suggested on viewing a Painting of a Female laughing.

Oh, let me laugh out, till my eye-lashes glisten
With tear-drops, which joy, like affliction, will bring;
Be not vex'd my dear Hal—I must laugh, you may listen,
And count the shrill echoes that cheerily ring.
Hark! to the morning gun,
Hail to thee! rising sun,
Dances my heart with exuberant glee.
The sky-lark from earth
Flies to heaven with its mirth,
But it cannot ha! ha! and be merry like me.
Mine is no half-suppressed drawing-room titter,
Strangled before it escapes from the lips;
Nor the sardonic smile, than wormwood more bitter,
Which might wither those flowers the honey-bee sips;
But the fountain of joy,
Without care or alloy,
Springs in my bosom—refreshens my heart.
Forest and river, then,
Echo my laugh again—
Never may gladness from Julia depart.
Look not so grave, gentle Henry, at me,
As if you would say all my griefs are to come;
No gloom in the morn of my life can I see,
And my laugh will scare sorrow away from our home.
Pleasure unending
Our footsteps attending,
One brilliant May day through our lifetime shall last.
Time shall not wear us,
No trouble come near us,
But the future be gilded by light from the past.
Now laugh, for my sake, dearest Hal, and the kiss
Which you sued for, I'll give, if you cordially roar.
Well done!—never barter a pleasure like this,
Were a crown to be purchased by laughing no more.
In contentment and health,
Tho' untrammel'd by wealth,
True bliss from the store of our hearts we may draw.
Let us laugh as we glide
O'er mortality's tide,
And cheer our last days with a rattling ha! ha!

E. M.