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"I WISH YOU A HAPPY NEW YEAR."
A happy year, sweet as the breath of flowers: A merry year, glad as the song of birds, A jocund year, gay as brown harvest hours; A prosperous year, rich, as in flocks and herds. THE LIFE-BOAT MAN. When the loud minute gun alarms the night, And plunging waters hide the bark from sight, When lurid lightnings threat, and thunders roll. And roaring tempests daunt the trembling soul— 'Tis thine, O Life-boat Man, such fears to brave, And snatch the drowning from a watery grave. "I am learning the stitch," the lover said As over her work he bent his head. But the scene spake plain to the mother's eye "I am watching these busy fingers ply." And ever anon when a stitch she'd miss, 'Twas because he bent lower her hand to kiss. Oh tender lover, and busy maid, May the sweet enchantment never fade; Nor the thread of life, though a stitch may miss, Know a break that may not be joined by a kiss. |
[THE SWEET GIRL GRADUATE.
A COMEDY IN FOUR ACTS.]
ACT I.
SCENE 1.—Scugog.
The breakfast-room in the house of BLOGGS, a wealthy Scugog merchant.
At the table, KATE, his daughter, reading a letter.
Kate (in much indignation). Refused! I knew it!
The crass ingratitude of haughty man,
Vested in all the pride of place and power,
Brooks not the aspirations of my sex,
However just. Is't that he fears to yield,
Lest from his laurelled brow the wreath should fall
And light on ours? We may matriculate,
And graduate—if we can, but he excludes
Us from the beaten path he takes himself.
The sun-lit heights of steep Parnassus
Reach past the clouds, and we below must stay;
Not that our alpen-stocks are weak, or that
Our breath comes short, but that, forsooth, we wear
The Petticoat. Out on such trash!
Enter MR. BLOGGS.
Mr. Bloggs. Why, what's the matter, Kate?
Kate. Not much, papa, only I am refused
Admission to the college. Sapient says
The Council have considered my request,
And find it inconsistent with the rules
Of discipline and order to admit
Women within their walls.