-chat,--
Stand pat!
When you hold the ruling hand
You are always in command,
And you'll surely beat the band.--
Stand pat, stand pat!
There's no need to draw or fill,
Stand pat!
Play your cards to make a kill,
Stand pat!
If there's one that wants to raise,
Back your last chip while he plays
Till the chump no longer stays,--
Stand pat, stand pat!
There's a stack of reds and blues,
Stand pat!
For the chap that knows their use,
Stand pat!
When the game is o'er and won
Are the stakes that urged us on,
God will cash our chips at dawn,--
Stand pat, stand pat!

The Valleys of Rest.

I.

What matters it, Dear, though the burdens be sore?
In the Valleys of Rest we shall weary no more,
And the music of mirth with its solace shall sing
All the songs of delight the beatitudes bring!

II.

Nevermore shall the days with the sorrows be sad
Where the love-roses bloom and the joy-mornings glad--
Where the violets dream through the east and the west
Of the beautiful lands in the Valleys of Rest!

III.

There the heart from its grief in a moment shall cease,
And the soul hush its cries in the cadence of peace,
And the life with the laughter of rhapsody blest
Shall rejoice through the years in the Valleys of Rest.

IV.

O, the dear dreams that fled down the deeps of the past
That await with their welcomes our coming at last;
And the lips of our love that our lips never pressed
Smiling there for their own in the Valleys of Rest!

V.

O, the raptures that stay for our glorified feet
When the joys of the past and the future shall meet,--
When the hopes of the years shall return from their quest
For the love-crowns of life in the Valleys of Rest!

VI.

Ah, the days, Dear, the days with their griefs and their glees
Sail away on swift ships o'er eternity's seas;
But at last we shall anchor with Love for our guest
On the Paradise shores by the Valleys of Rest!

The Ignorance of the Court.

They tell a good story over at Guthrie at Judge Burford's expense.
Recently, an old Tennessee darkey, charged with stealing chickens, was
brought into court for trial. The facts were all against him. He had no
attorney, and when the Judge asked him if he wanted an attorney
appointed to defend him, he declared that he did not.

"But yo