A VALENTINE

THE FATE OF THE FLATTERER

THERE is a sure unerring law-
A part of Nature's plan,

That what man giveth unto maids,
Maids render back to man.

For men's duplicity they yield
Their mighty scorn in full,

And with severity tenfold
His character they pull,

Remorselessly to pieces small,

Until the very shreds,

Would take full countless pairs of hands,

To gather up the threads.

The man who tells each girl he meets

She's fairest of her sex,'

In course of time will surely find,
He flatters but to vex.

What is the worth of honeyed phrase, That's given to all around?

It bears no meaning when 'tis known To be but empty sound.

But retribution comes at length,
No woman wants his praise,
There's not a maid in all the world

Believes a word he says.

REFLECTIONS OF A STUDENT

WHEN queerest problems rack my brain,

And give me infinite of pain,

That sure I feel I'm near insane

As madman.

I sit, and think, and read, and pore,
And go on wondering more and more
While conning methods' o'er and o'er,
Till heart-sick.

I wonder if my genius rare

Will ever the round circle square,

And make my work beyond compare

Of mortal.

T

My mind disturbed and ill at ease,
Sweet satisfaction none it sees,

For all prove vain soliloquies,

And worthless.

At length my temper grows quite hot,
For I declare the thing 'all rot,'

And to my dear tobacco-pot

I turn me.

My pipe, what consolation kind

I ever in thy incense find!

It soothes and cheers my troubled mind

Most sweetly.

Ah, what care I for love and kisses?
My heart such transport never misses
Nor ever seeks those tender blisses,

To cheer it.

When sober, thoughtful, walking through The green fields decked with diamond dew,

I take my one companion true,

And love it.

Yes, to my lips I press the shank
As seated on a sloping bank

I smoke amidst its grasses rank

Quite happy.

Now, I'll be wedded by-and-by,
But not to woman-no-not I;

'Twill be to pipe and brown birdseye.

I'm mated.