ke part.

It was all about a--ha! ha!--and a--ho! ho! ho!--well really,
It is--he! he! he!--I never could begin to tell you half
Of the nonsense there was in it, for I just remember clearly
It began with--ha! ha! ha! ha! and it ended with a laugh.

But Sally--she could tell it, looking at us so demurely,
With a woe-begone expression that no actress would despise;
And if you'd never heard it, why you would imagine surely
That you'd need your pocket-handkerchief to wipe your weeping eyes.

When age my hair has silvered, and my step has grown unsteady,
And the nearest to my vision are the scenes of long ago,
I shall see the pretty picture, and the tears may come as ready
As the laugh did, when I used to--ha! ha! ha! and--ho! ho! ho!

A SONNET.

BY JOSEPHINE POLLARD.

Once a poet wrote a sonnet
All about a pretty bonnet,
And a critic sat upon it
(On the sonnet,
Not the bonnet),
Nothing loath.

And as if it were high treason,
He said: "Neither rhyme nor reason
Has it; and it's out of season,"
Which? the sonnet
Or the bonnet?
Maybe both.

"'Tis a feeble imitation
Of a worthier creation;
An aesthetic innovation!"
Of a sonnet
Or a bonnet?
This was hard.

Both were put together neatly,
Harmonizing very sweetly,
But the critic crushed completely
Not the bonnet,
Or the sonnet,
But the bard.

WANTED, A MINISTER.

BY MRS. M.E.W. SKEELS.

We've a church, tho' the belfry is leaning,
They are talking I think of repair,
And the _bell_, oh, pray but excuse us,
'Twas _talked of_, but never's been there.
Now, "Wanted, a _real live minister_,"
And to settle the same for _life_,
We've an organ and some one to play it,
So we don't care a fig for his wife.

We once had a pastor (don't tell it),
But we chanced on a time to discover
That his sermons were writ long ago,
And he had preached them twice over.
How sad this mistake, tho' unmeaning,
Oh, it made such a desperate muss!
Both deacon and laymen were vexed,
And decided, "He's no man for us."

And then the "old nick" was to pay,
"Truth indeed is stranger than fiction,"
His _prayers_ were so tedious and long,
People slept, till the benediction.