"What, sit by the side of a woman as fair as the sun in the sky,
And look somewhere else lest the dazzle flash back from your own to
her eye?

"No, I hold that the speech of the tongue be as frank and as bold as
the look,
And I held up myself to herself--that was more than she got from her
book."

"Young blood!" laughed the elder; "no doubt you are voicing the mode
of to-day:
But then we old fogies at least gave the lady some chance for delay.

"There's my wife--(you must know)--we first met on the journey from
Florence to Rome;
It took me three weeks to discover who was she, and where was her
home;

"Three more to be duly presented; three more ere I saw her again;
And a year ere my romance _began_ where yours ended that day on the
train."

"Oh, that was the style of the stage-coach; we travel to-day by
express;
Forty miles to the hour," he answered, "won't admit of a passion
that's less."

"But what if you make a mistake?" quoth the elder. The younger half
sighed.
"What happens when signals are wrong or switches misplaced?" he
replied.

"Very well, I must bow to your wisdom," the elder returned, "but
submit
Your chances of winning this woman your boldness has bettered no
whit.

"Why, you do not at best know her name. And what if I try your ideal
With something, if not quite so fair, at least more _en regle_ and
real?

"Let me find you a partner. Nay, come, I insist--you shall
follow--this way.
My dear, will you not add your grace to entreat Mr. Rapid to stay?

"My wife, Mr. Rapid--Eh, what? Why, he's gone--yet he said he would
come.
How rude! I don't wonder, my dear, you are properly crimson and
dumb?"

HE WORRIED ABOUT IT.

BY S. W. FOSS.

"The Sun will give out in ten million years more;
It will sure give out then, if it doesn't before."
And he worried about it;
It would surely give out, so the scientists said
And they proved it in many a book he had read,
And the whole mighty universe then would be dead.
And he worried about it.

"Or some day the earth will fall into the sun,
Just as sure and as straight, as if shot from a gun."
And he worried about it.
"For when gravitation unbuckles her straps,
Just picture," he said, "what a fearful collapse!
It will come in a few million ages, perhaps."
And he worri