Before they reached the outskirts of the city the Ringgold Archers halted and took off their uniforms. Most of these were sadly bedraggled and torn in the struggles with the young men, and, furthermore, they seemed more like the gowns of the charcoal-men than they had done before. Each of us rolled his uniform around his bow and carried them home under his arm, and such of us as had feathers in our hats took them out and threw them away.
That was the last expedition of the Ringgold Archers. Although we gave up the idea of emulating the deeds of Robin Hood, Little John, and Friar Tuck, some of us became very good amateur archers.
As to Major Ringgold, his blighted affections and his flowing hair, they faded out of our minds with the memory of our torn and discarded uniforms of blue.
[A CONSTABULARY SLIP.]
BY H. G. PAINE.
When the snow falls in the city,
Oh, it seems a dreadful pity!
And it costs a lot to cart it all away;
But the boys who on the side-
Walk make the dangerous slide
Would like to have the snow come every day.
Oh, it's fun to hear them shout,
As they slip and slide about,
Like some eerie, cheery spirits of the storm;
But just call out, "Cheese the cop!"
And how suddenly they stop!
For the "copper" has a duty to perform.
"Now yous fellies git a gait,"
He exclaims, and, if they wait,
"Come, now, yous, jus' chase yourselves right off de block!"
But I should not be surprised
If he often sympathized
With his victims, and his heart were not a rock.
For 'twas but the other night,
When no roundsman was in sight,
That I saw a "copper" running down the street.
Was he chasing of a thief?
Don't you err in that belief—
He was sliding on each slide along his beat.
ONE-LEGGED DUCKS.
