rattling joke,
And feel, perhaps, a tear.

Why is it here? Alas for me!
I broke it at a ball.
"Apologize--repair it" See?
Five dollars gone,--that's all.

Certainty.

Phyllis, love may be for you,
But it is not for me;
For fortune comes between us two,
And says it must not be.

Another fellow's fortune, too;
A million, as I know.
You ask me how I found it out?
Your mater told me so.

Caught.

When Phyllis turned her eyes on me
I blushed and hesitated;
For though on terms familiar, we
Were not at all related.

I felt her mild, reproachful glance,
And knew her words would rankle.
To tell the truth, I had, by chance,
Been looking at her ankle.

An Important Distinction.

She said, without a single sigh,
And hardly hesitation,
That she would be my sister, aye,
Or any fond relation.

I answered cunningly, "Ah me,
I've sisters by the dozen;
Please make it in the next degree,
For one may wed a cousin."

Two Kinds.

Oh, her eyes, her beautiful eyes!
How they melt when she sobs or she sighs!
How they droop
When she blushes!
How they flash
When she crushes
The love she's compelled to disguise!

Oh, her i's, her beautiful i's!
Who can tell them apart though he tries
From her m's
Or her e's,
N's, or u's
As you please
In her letters? I offer a prize.

What it Is.

Just a little melancholy,
Just a tear or two,
Just a word that's naughty,
Just a spiteful "pooh!"

Just an extra cocktail,
Just a flower-bill due,
Just another ring to take
Unto my friend, the Jew.
That is what it is to be
Rejected, Miss, by you.

In her Pew.

She looked up from her pew
(Why she did, Heaven knows);
But I smiled; wouldn't you?
'T was the right thing to do;
And, pshaw, nobody knew.
Then I tried hard to pose,
But a look of hers froze
All my blood. And I woo
Her in future, old chappie, when not in her pew.

The Suspicious Lover to the Star.

O silver star,
That seeth far,
Tell my poor heart what she is doing;
And ease my pain,
Who would again
Be at her side, and still be wooing.

Does she regret
The to