"Dear Mary Ann, I've got your poe-try;
Keep up your pluck and dry your eye;
I'll anchor alongside you by-and-by."
This elegant effusion he addressed—
Miss Mary Ann Ross,
Care of Mrs. Shever,
Portsmouth.
And having posted it, turned his attention to official matters, and thought no more of his old flame.
Mrs. Shever, having written the stanzas, which Thompson supposed came from her sister, did not scruple to appropriate the reply to herself; so Mary Ann never received this last love-offering from her old admirer, who was still in blissful ignorance of her being "his no more."