So hither come, O sportive youth! when fades the tell-tale day—­
  Come hither with your fillets and your wreathes of posies gay;
  We shall unloose the fragrant seas of seething, frothing wine
  Which now the cobwebbed glass and envious wire and corks confine,
  And midst the pleasing revelry the praises shall be heard
  Of the large cold bottle, not the small hot bird.

THE MAN WHO WORKED WITH DANA ON THE “SUN”.

  Thar showed up out ’n Denver in the spring of ’81
  A man who’d worked with Dana on the Noo York Sun. 
  His name was Cantell Whoppers, ’nd he was a sight ter view
  Ez he walked into the orfice ’nd inquired for work to do;
  Thar warn’t no places vacant then—­fer, be it understood,
  That was the time when talent flourished at that altitood;
  But thar the stranger lingered, tellin’ Raymond ’nd the rest
  Uv what perdigious wonders he could do when at his best—­
  ’Til finally he stated (quite by chance) that he had done
  A heap uv work with Dana on the Noo York Sun.

  Wall, that wuz quite another thing; we owned that ary cuss
  Who’d worked f’r Mr. Dana must be good enough for us! 
  And so we tuk the stranger’s word ’nd nipped him while we could,
  For if we didn’t take him we knew John Arkins would—­
  And Cooper, too, wuz mousin’ round for enterprise ’nd brains,
  Whenever them commodities blew in across the plains. 
  At any rate, we nailed him—­which made ol’ Cooper swear
  And Arkins tear out handfuls uv his copious curly hair—­
  But we set back and cackled, ’nd had a power uv fun
  With our man who’d worked with Dana on the Noo York Sun.

  It made our eyes hang on our cheeks ’nd lower jaws ter drop
  Ter hear that feller tellin’ how ol’ Dana run his shop;
  It seems that Dana was the biggest man you ever saw—­
  He lived on human bein’s ’nd preferred to eat ’em raw! 
  If he had democratic drugs to take, before he took ’em,
  As good old allopathic laws prescribe, he allus shook ’em! 
  The man that could set down ’nd write like Dana never grew
  And the sum of human knowledge wuzn’t half what Dana knew. 
  The consequence appeared to be that nearly everyone
  Concurred with Mr. Dana of the Noo York Sun.

  This feller, Cantell Whoppers, never brought an item in—­
  He spent his time at Perrin’s shakin’ poker dice f’r gin;
  Whatever the assignment, he wuz allus sure to shirk—­
  He wuz very long on likker and all-fired short on work! 
  If any other cuss had played the tricks he dare ter play,
  The daisies would be bloomin’ over his remains to-day;
  But, somehow, folks respected him and stood him to the last,
  Considerin’ his superior connections in the past;
  So, when he bilked at poker, not a sucker drew a gun
  On the man who’d worked with Dana on the Noo York Sun.