A BUBBLE.

  Mrs. Mehitable Marcia Moore
    Was a dame of superior mind,
  With a gown which, modestly fitting before,
    Was greatly puffed up behind.

  The bustle she wore was ingeniously planned
    With an inspiration bright: 
  It magnified seven diameters and
    Was remarkably nice and light.

  It was made of rubber and edged with lace
    And riveted all with brass,
  And the whole immense interior space
    Inflated with hydrogen gas.

  The ladies all said when she hove in view
    Like the round and rising moon: 
  “She’s a stuck up thing!” which was partly true,
    And men called her the Captive Balloon.

  To Manhattan Beach for a bath one day
    She went and she said:  “O dear! 
  If I leave off this what will people say? 
    I shall look so uncommonly queer!”

  So a costume she had accordingly made
    To take it all nicely in,
  And when she appeared in that suit arrayed,
    She was greeted with many a grin.

  Proudly and happily looking around,
    She waded out into the wet,
  But the water was very, very profound,
    And her feet and her forehead met!

  As her bubble drifted away from the shore,
    On the glassy billows borne,
  All cried:  “Why, where is Mehitable Moore? 
  I saw her go in, I’ll be sworn!”

  Then the bulb it swelled as the sun grew hot,
    Till it burst with a sullen roar,
  And the sea like oil closed over the spot—­
    Farewell, O Mehitable Moore!

A RENDEZVOUS.

  Nightly I put up this humble petition: 
    “Forgive me, O Father of Glories,
  My sins of commission, my sins of omission,
    My sins of the Mission Dolores.”

FRANCINE.

  Did I believe the angels soon would call
    You, my beloved, to the other shore,
    And I should never see you any more,
  I love you so I know that I should fall
  Into dejection utterly, and all
    Love’s pretty pageantry, wherein we bore
    Twin banners bravely in the tumult’s fore,
  Would seem as shadows idling on a wall. 
  So daintily I love you that my love
    Endures no rumor of the winter’s breath,
      And only blossoms for it thinks the sky
  Forever gracious, and the stars above
    Forever friendly.  Even the fear of death
      Were frost wherein its roses all would die.

AN EXAMPLE.

  They were two deaf mutes, and they loved and they
    Resolved to be groom and bride;
  And they listened to nothing that any could say,
    Nor ever a word replied.

  From wedlock when warned by the married men,
    Maintain an invincible mind: 
  Be deaf and dumb until wedded—­and then
    Be deaf and dumb and blind.