ee is my head and neck--and not a bit of my dress--
She'll think I was funny to go down-town with so little on, I guess!
Yet pa says, "Never you mind, my dear--blame it on me or the man;
But mother will like it, you see if she don't--she wanted _you_,
'Lizabeth Ann."

THE SMALL BOY EXPLAINS

Some people say the sky is blue
Acause it's warshed by rains up there;
I dunno if 'at's so, do you?
And I don't care--and I don't care!

I ain't no sky, an' I don't like
To have my face warshed, anyhow;
My nurse says I'm a "naughty tike
To run away" or raise a row.

But ef she daubed mud on like this
A-purpose, so's the boys would play
With her--and not call her a "sis,"
She'd hate to warsh it all away!

That's why the blue sky'll never mean
A in-spi-ra-tion er a "joy";
A-course it can be nice an' clean--
It won't be called a "sissy-boy."

THE BOLD LOVER

He held her hand, and joy shone in his eyes;
The world and all therein to him was fair;
What mattered now the gloomy, lowering skies?
For what the future held he did not care!
He only knew he loved her and that she
Was everything a real sweetheart should be.

He held her hand.... The car was crowded, too;
The passengers could not suppress their smiles.
The love he felt, perhaps, obscured his view,
So wrapt was he in all her pretty wiles.
And when he kissed her rosy lips, a hush
Fell on them as they saw her slowly blush!

He held her hand and gazed about with pride,
As though to challenge those who'd say him nay;
He held her hand--and nestling to her side,
The interested audience heard him say;
"Oh, Momie, dear, you're sweet as any rose--
I love you more dan _any_body knows."

IMAGINATION

Oncet, when I was a gret big man, I got mad at the way
Ol' nurses bossed the childruns an' so I wouldn't stay;
I jest got up and PUSHED MY HOUSE right over--yes, I did;
An' then I turned the streets all round, and runned away and hid!
When I come back, my childruns was cryin' awful loud,
Fer nobody knowed _wher_ they lived, an' there was _such_ a crowd.
I says, "Now, folks must shet their eyes--don't open them a crack!"--
An' then I straightened out the streets, an' put the houses back.

'N oncet I was a NELUPHANT, as big as all outdoors,
'N every time I turned around it shook the roofs and floors;
I walked down to the river, and I drunk it up--ALL up,
Jest like it was some cambric tea in my ol' silver cup.
An' when the people co