IF

MOTHERS-IN-LAW.

F you ever should marry, (said Major McGarth,
While smoking a pipe by my bachelor-hearth,)
If you ever should wed, - and I would n't employ
A word to prevent it, my broth of a boy, —
Remember that wedlock's a company where
The parties, quite often, are more than a pair;
'T is a lott'ry in which you are certain to draw
A wife, and, most likely, a mother-in-law !

What the latter may be all conjecture defies:
She is never a blank; she is seldom a prize;
Sometimes she is silly; sometimes she is bold;

Sometimes rather worse! — she's a virulent scold.
You dreamed of an angel to gladden your home,
And with her God help you! - a harpy has come;
You fished for a wife without failing or flaw,

And find you have netted — a mother-in-law!

"Dear Anna," she says,

66 as you clearly may see,

Has always been used to depending on me ;

Poor child!-though the gentlest that ever was

known

She could never be trusted a moment alone;

Such sensitive nerves, and such delicate lungs!”

Cries the stoutest of dames with the longest of tongues. "Like mother - like child; you remember the saw; I'm weakly myself," says your mother-in-law !

But your mother-in-law, you discover erelong,
Though feeble in body, in temper is strong;

And so you surrender — what else can you do?
She governs your wife, and your servants, and you;
And calls you a savage, the coarsest of brutes,
For trampling the carpet with mud on your boots;
And vows she committed a stupid "fox-paw"
In rashly becoming your mother-in-law !

And so (said the Major) pray, let me advise
The carefullest use of your ears and your eyes;
And, ceteris paribus, take you a maid

(Of widows, my boy, I am something afraid!) Who gives you the darling!— her hand and her love, With a sigh for her "dear sainted mother above!" From which the conclusion you safely may draw, She will never appear as your mother-in-law !

THE POET TO HIS GARRET.

THRIC

(FROM BÉRANger.)

HRICE welcome the place where at twenty I sought

A nest for myself and my darling grisette;

Where I learned the queer lessons that Poverty taught, And with friendship and love banished care and

regret.

'T was here that we managed our social affairs,

Unheeding what dunces or sages might say;
How lightly I bounded up six pair o' stairs!
Ah! life in a garret at twenty is gay!

And here on the plaster in charcoal appear
Three lines of a poem unfinished as yet.
"Come back to me, Pleasures!" I eagerly shout;
"To keep you alive in my juvenile day
How oft my repeater was 'put up the spout!
Ah! life in a garret at twenty is gay!

My laughing Lisette! would she only come back;
In her jaunty straw bonnet how charming was she!
Full well I remember her dexterous knack

Of hanging her shawl where the curtain should be;
Love! kiss her silk gown with your fondest caress ;
You know where she got it, I venture to say;
I never was certain who paid for the dress;
Ah! life in a garret at twenty is gay!

One notable day in those glorious years,

As we sat in the midst of our feasting and fun, A shout from the people saluted our ears,

66

Napoleon is victor! — Marengo is won !

A new song of triumph at once we essayed,

While cannon were blazing and booming away, "The free soil of France kings shall never invade !" Ah! life in a garret at twenty is gay!

Away! - I must go lest my reason should reel ;
For one of those days I would cheerfully give,
With the pulses of youth that no longer I feel,

All the lingering years I am destined to live ;
The love, hope, and joy that at twenty I had,
To have them condensed in one glorious day,
Like those that I spent when a light-hearted lad!
Ah! life in a garret at twenty is gay!

SONNETS.

SOMEWHERE.

COMEWHERE.

SOM

somewhere a happy clime there is,

A land that knows not unavailing woes,

Where all the clashing elements of this

Discordant scene are hushed in deep repose. Somewhere somewhere (ah me, that land to win!)

Is some bright realm, beyond the farthest main,
Where trees of Knowledge bear no fruit of sin,
The buds of Pleasure blossom not in pain.
Somewhere somewhere an end of mortal strife
With our immortal yearnings; nevermore
The outer warring with the inner life

Till both are wretched. Ah, that happy shore !
Where shines for aye the soul's refulgent sun,
And life is love, and love and joy are one!

I

CHANGE NOT LOSS.

DEEM to love and lose by love's decay
In either breast, or Fate's unkindly cross,
Is not, perforce, irreparable loss

Unto the larger. There may come a day,
Changing for precious gold Affection's dross,
When the great heart that sorely sighed to say
"Farewell!" unto the late-departed guest
(The transient tenant of an idle breast)

Shall, through the open portal, welcome there
A worthier than he who barred the place
Against the loitering lord, whose regal face
And princely step proclaim the lawful heir
Arrived — ah, happy day ! — to fill the throne
By royal right divine his very own!

À LA PENSÉE.

'OME to me, dearest! O, I cannot bear

COM

These barren words of worship that to each
The other utters ! In the finer speech

Of soft caresses let our souls declare
Their opulence of love; for while instead

We linger prattling, kind Occasion slips,
Leaving to pensive sighs the pallid lips
That else for pleasure had been ruby red.
Thanks! darling, thanks! Ah, happier than a king
In all beatitude of royal bliss

Is he whose mouth (again! O perfect kiss !) May thus unto thine own with rapture cling; For very joy of love content to live Unquestioning if Love have more to give!

ABSENCE.

ABSENT from thee, beloved, I am pent

In utter solitude, where'er I be;

My wonted pleasures give me small content Wanting the highest, — to be shared by thee.