To the Pliocene Skull. 95 "" Which my name is Bowers, and my crust was busted Falling down a shaft in Calaveras County; But I'd take it kindly if you'd send the pieces THE BALLAD OF THE EMEU. Он, say, have you seen at the Willows so green,— So charming and rurally true, A singular bird, with a manner absurd, Which they call the Australian Emeu? Ever seen this Australian Emeu? It trots all around with its head on the ground, Oh! do Just look at that lovely Emeu! One day to this spot, when the weather was hot, Came Matilda Hortense Fortescue ; And beside her there came a youth of high name,— The Ballad of the Emcu. 97 Augustus Florell Montague: The two Both loved that wild, foreign Emeu. With two loaves of bread then they fed it, instead Which once was its food in that wild neighbourhood Where ranges the sweet Kangaroo : That, too, Is the game for the famous Emeu ! Old saws and gimlets but its appetite whets, There's nothing so hard that the bird will discard And nothing its taste will eschew, That you Can give that long-legged Emeu! The time slipped away in this innocent play, "Where's that specimen pin that I gaily did win In raffle, and gave unto you, Fortescue?" No word spoke the guilty Emeu! "Quick! tell me his name whom thou gavest that same, Ere these hands in thy blood I imbrue!" "Nay, dearest," she cried, as she clung to his side, "I'm innocent as that Emeu!" He replied, "Miss M. H. Fortescue!" Down she dropped at his feet, all as white as a sheet, As wildly he fled from her view : He thought 'twas her sin; for he knew not the pin Had been gobbled up by the Emeu ; The voracity of that Emeu! All through THE AGED STRANGER. AN INCIDENT OF THE WAR. "I WAS with Grant "-the stranger said. Said the farmer, "Say no more, But rest thee here at my cottage porch, For thy feet are weary and sore." "I was with Grant "-the stranger said. Said the farmer, "Nay, no more: I prithee sit at my frugal board, And eat of my humble store. "How fares my boy,-my soldier boy, Of the old Ninth Army Corps? |