de of our black and gray.

AFTER THE GERMAN.
A SOPHOMORE SOLILOQUY.

Blackboard, with ruler and rubber before me,
Chalk loosely held in my hand,
Sun-gilded motes in the air all around me,
Listlessly dreaming I stand.

What do I care for the problem I've written
In characters gracefully slight,
As the festal-robed beauties whose fairy feet flitted
Through the maze of the German last night!

What do I care for the lever of friction,
For sine, or co-ordinate plane,
When fairy musicians are playing the "Mabel,"
And waltzes each nerve in my brain!

On my coat's powdered chalk, not the dust of the diamond
That only last night sparkled there,
By the galop's wild whirl shower'd down on my shoulder
From turbulent tresses of hair.

In my ear is the clatter of chalk against blackboard,
Not music's voluptuous swell;
Alas! this is life,--so pass mortal pleasures,
And,--thank goodness, there goes the bell!

AN IDYL OF THE PERIOD.
IN TWO PARTS.
PART ONE.

"Come right in. How are you, Fred?
Find a chair, and get a light."
"Well, old man, recovered yet
From the Mather's jam last night?"
"Didn't dance. The German's old."
"Didn't you? I had to lead--
Awful bore! Did you go home?"
"No. Sat out with Molly Meade.
Jolly little girl she is--
Said she didn't care to dance,
'D rather sit and talk to me--
Then she gave me such a glance!
So, when you had cleared the room,
And impounded all the chairs,
Having nowhere else, we two
Took possession of the stairs.
I was on the lower step,
Molly, on the next above,
Gave me her bouquet to hold,
Asked me to undo her glove.
Then, of course, I squeezed her hand,
Talked about my wasted life;
'Ah! if I could only win
Some true woman for my wife,
How I'd love her--work for her!
Hand in hand through life we'd walk--
No one ever cared for me--'
Takes a girl--that kind of talk.
Then, you know, I used my eyes--
She believed me, every word--
Said I 'mustn't talk so'--Jove!
Such a voice you never heard.
Gave me some symbolic flower,--
'Had a meaning, oh, _so_ sweet,'--
Don't know where it is, I'm sure;
Must have dropped it in the street.
How I spooned!--And she--ha! ha!