What could we do? . . . We filed back to
The bar: And Guss jest looked at us,
And we looked back "The same as you,"
Still sayin' nothin'—And the sap
It stood in every eye,
And every hat and cap
Went off, as we teched glasses solemnly,
And Guss says-he:
"Ef it's 'good-bye' with Tugg, fer shore,—I say
God bless him!—Er ef they
Aint railly no need to pray,
I'm not reniggin!—board's the play,
And here's God bless him, anyway!"
VII.
It must a-bin an hour er so
We all set there,
Talkin o' pore
Old Tugg, you know,
'At never, wuz ketched up before—
When—all slow-like—the door-
Knob turned—and Tugg come shamblin' in,
Hand-cuffed'—'at's what he wuz, I swear!—
Yit smilin,' like he hadn't bin
Away at all! And when we ast him where
The Deputy wuz at,—"I don't know where," Tugg said,—
"All I know is—he's dead."
LET US FORGET.
Let us forget. What matters it that we
Once reigned o'er happy realms of long-ago,
And talked of love, and let our voices low,
And ruled for some brief sessions royally?
What if we sung, or laughed, or wept maybe?
It has availed not anything, and so
Let it go by that we may better know
How poor a thing is lost to you and me.
But yesterday I kissed your lips, and yet
Did thrill you not enough to shake the dew
From your drenched lids—and missed, with no regret,
Your kiss shot back, with sharp breaths failing you;
And so, to-day, while our worn eyes are wet
With all this waste of tears, let us forget!
JOHN ALDEN AND PERCILLY.
We got up a Christmas-doin's
Last Christmas Eve—
Kindo' dimonstration
'At I railly believe
Give more satisfaction—
Take it up and down—
Than ary intertainment
Ever come to town!
Railly was a theater—
That's what it was,—
But, bein' in the church, you know,
We had a "Santy Clause"—
So 's to git the old folks
To patternize, you see,
And back the institootion up
Kindo' morally.
Schoolteacher writ the thing—
(Was a friend o' mine),
Got it out o' Longfeller's
Pome "Evangeline"—
Er some'rs—'bout the Purituns—.
Anyway, the part
"John Alden" fell to me—
And learnt it all by heart!
Claircy was "Percilly"—
(Schoolteacher 'lowed
Me and her could act them two
Best of all the crowd)—
Then—blame ef he didn't
Git her Pap, i jing!—
To take the part o' "Santy Clause,"
To wind up the thing.