and of man is red;
But I know a hundred places,
Where blood's as wanton shed:
Yet no spot in all creation
Has a sky of such a hue--
In the mountains of Kentucky
Lives my sweetheart pure and true.

_Refrain_

In the Blue-grass of Kentucky
Now Rowena waits for me,
With a brood of little fairies
That my heart so longs to see;
For their eyes are bright and sparkling
As the drops of diamond dew--
In the Blue-grass of Kentucky,
Live my sweethearts pure and true:
Yes, I love the lofty mountains,
And the deep and darkling cove,
Where the redbirds gloom and glimmer,
And the sky is bright above;
But one spot to me is dearer
Than all the world apart,
In the Blue-grass of Kentucky,
Lives my own, my true sweetheart.

_Refrain_

THE BLOOM OF LOVE!

(_Double Acrostic_)

Romance by the little stream,
Where the wild-rose blooms so fair;
Oh, who would mar that happy dream
I see enacted there?
Beauteous orioles are they--
Little timid, tongueless birds--
Each listening to the voiceless lay,
Love strives to put in words.
Roses drop their petals round;
In the air a sweet perfume;
Till time no longer baffles sound--
Eternal love hath burst its bloom!

MY MUSE

Oh! couldst thou know her faithful art!
When troubled dreams disturb the brain,
Though rattling sleet be on the pane,
Beneath the window of my heart,
I hear her cheering strain--
My _Muse_ who never will depart
For life's cold wintry rain.

A HANK OF HOMESPUN

THE SCHOOL OF SKINNY

Have you never heard the story of the good old country school
With its rude split-bottomed benches and its ancient _dunce's stool_?
Where Webster's Blue-back Speller was the only standard text,
And supplied the place of grammar that our late forefathers vexed;
Where they never heard of Latin or the Greek subjunctive mode,
But sang their mult-plication like a patriotic ode?

The Master, he was skinny, with a lean and hungry look;
And a countenance as placid as a frozen winter brook;
His brow was broad and Grecian, and his eye was snell and keen,
And his head was stuffed with knowledge of a dozen books, I ween;
And they say his nose was Roman as the bill of any hawk,
And his boys were all