Said the Central, "I'm Pacific;

But, when riled, I'm quite terrific. Yet to-day we shall not quarrel,

Just to show these folks this moral,

How two Engines - in their vision

Once have met without collision."

That is what the Engines said,

Unreported and unread;

Spoken slightly through the nose,

With a whistle at the close.

"THE RETURN OF BELISARIUS."

MUD FLAT, 1869.

So you're back from your travels, old fellow,

And you left but a twelvemonth ago:

You've hobnobbed with Louis Napoleon,
Eugenie, and kissed the Pope's toe.

By Jove! it is perfectly stunning,
Astounding, and all that, you know:

Yes, things are about as you left them
In Mud Flat a twelvemonth ago.

The boys! They're all right, -Oh! Dick Ashley, He's buried somewhere in the snow;

He was lost on the Summit, last winter,

And Bob has a hard row to hoe.

You knew that he's got the consumption?

You didn't! Well, come, that's a go:

I certainly wrote you at Baden,

Dear me that was six months ago.

I got all your outlandish letters,

All stamped by some foreign P.O.

I handed myself to Miss Mary

That sketch of a famous château.

Tom Saunders is living at 'Frisco,-
They say that he cuts quite a show.
You didn't meet Euchre-deck Billy

Anywhere on your road to Cairo ?

So you thought of the rusty old cabin,
The pines, and the valley below;

And heard the North Fork of the Yuba,

As

you stood on the banks of the Po?

'Twas just like your romance, old fellow;

But now there is standing a row

Of stores on the site of the cabin
That you lived in a twelvemonth ago.

But it's jolly to see you, old fellow,

To think it's a twelvemonth ago! And you have seen Louis Napoleon, And look like a Johnny Crapaud.

Come in. You will surely see Mary,

You know we are married. What, no?

Oh, ay! I forgot there was something

Between you a twelvemonth ago.