As gentle as a lamb with me, But with your brothers bold; More playful than a frolic boy, I clasp your head upon my breast my And while you whine and lick handAnd thus our friendship is confessed And thus we understand! Ah, Blanco! did I worship God Did I sit fondly at His feet, As you, dear Blanco, sit at mine, And watch him with a love as sweet, My life would grow divine! J. G. HOLLAND. THE BEGGAR AND HIS DOG. "Pay down three dollars for my hound! May lightning strike me to the ground! What mean the Messieurs of police? And when and where shall this mockery cease? "I am a poor, old, sickly man, And earn a penny I no wise can; I have no money, I have no bread, And live upon hunger and want, instead. sick and poor, And neighbors turned me from their door? And who, when I was left alone In God's wide world, made my fortunes his own? "Who loved me, when I was weak and old? And warmed me, when I was numb with cold? And who, when I in poverty pined, Has shared my hunger and never whined? "Here is the noose, and here the stone, As over his head he lifted the band, The fawning dog licked his master's hand; And round his own neck in a twinkling threw. The dog sprang after him into the deep, They laid him silently in the ground, Chamisso, tr. by C. T. BROOKS. DON. This is Don, the dog of dogs, sir, To buzzards and that tribe inferior. And to praise him seems a duty, But it puts my pen to shame, sir, Sell him! well, upon my word, sir, Sell our Don! you 're surely joking, And Don and I will not divide, sir; He's my friend, that's why I love him,And no mortal dog's above him! How the sailors loved our darling! While thus jolly, all together, To put forth one half its merits, Soon our stanch and gallant vessel 'T was the coming on of twilight, "What did Don do?" Can't you guess, sir? Seized the infant's little dress, sir, Held the baby's head up boldly From the waves that rushed so coldly; And in just about a minute Our boat had them safe within it. Sell him! Would you sell your brother? Don and I love one another. J. T. FIELDS. Four ! GEIST'S GRAVE. years and didst thou stay above The ground, which hides thee now, but four? |