Of hands across and down the middle,

Hers was the subtlest spell by far

Of all that set young hearts romancing;

She was our queen, our rose, our star;

And then she danced—O Heaven, her dancing!

Through sunny May, through sultry June,

I loved her with a love eternal;

I spoke her praises to the moon,

I wrote them to the Sunday Journal:

My mother laugh’d: I soon found out