THE SOLEMN OLD LADY.
BY W. L. PETERS.
There was once a wee boy
With an excellent face.
Who was seen every Sunday
At church in his place;
And there this wee boy was accustomed to stare
At a solemn old lady with lavender hair,
Who used to sit opposite to him.
But when the long service
Was over at last,
He would wait at the
Vestibule door till she passed;
And then she would stop on her way from the pew,
And propound a conundrum, which he never knew,
For she asked him the "drift of the sermon."
By-and-by, when the little boy's
Manhood came round,
The whole world an unanswered
Conundrum he found.
And he can no more answer it now, I declare,
Than he could the old lady with lavender hair,
Who used to sit opposite to him.
THE WEE BOY IN CHURCH.—Drawn by C. A. Northam.
Smith's Hill, California.