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Winter's cooler, summer's warmer,
Blood-polluter, specious snare;
Mob-collector, man-transformer,
Bond-undoer, gambler's fare.

Speech-bewrangler, headlong-bringer,
Vitals-burner, deadly fire;
Riot-mover, firebrand-flinger,
Discord's singer, misery's sire.

Sinews-robber, worth-depriver,
Strength-subduer, hideous foe;
Reason-thwarter, fraud-contriver,
Money-waster, nations' woe.

Vile seducer, joy dispeller,

Peace-disturber, blackguard guest;
Sloth-implanter, liver-sweller,

Brain-distractor, hateful pest.

Utterance-boggler, stench-emitter,
Strong-man-sprawler, fatal drop;
Tumult-raiser, venom-spitter,
Wrath's inspirer, coward's prop.

Pain-inflicter, eyes-inflamer,

Heart corrupter, folly's nurse;

Secret-babbler, body-maimer,

Thrift-defeater, loathsome curse.

Wit-destroyer, joy-impairer,

Scandal-dealer, foul-mouthed scourge;

Senses-blunter, youth-ensnarer,

Crime-inventor, ruin's verge.

Virtue-blaster, base deceiver,

Spite-displayer, sot's delight;

Noise-exciter, stomach-heaver,

Falsehood-spreader, scorpion's bite.

Quarrel-plotter, rage discharger,

Giant-conqueror, wasteful sway;

THE YOUNG WIDOW.

Chin-carbuncler, tongue-enlarger,
Malice-ventor, death's broadway.

Tempest-scatterer, window-smasher,
-Death's-forerunner, hell's dire brink;
Ravenous murderer, wind-pipe slasher.
Drunkard's lodging, meat, and drink.

THE YOUNG WIDOW.

HE is modest, but not bashful,

SHE

Free and easy, but not bold;
Like an apple, ripe and mellow,
Not too young and not too old.
Half inviting, half responsive,
Now advancing and now shy,
There is mischief in her dimple,
There is danger in her eye.

She has studied human nature,
She is schooled in every art;
She has taken her diploma

As the mistress of the heart;
She can tell the very moment
When to sigh and when to smile-
O, a maid is sometimes charming,
But a widow all the while.

Are you sad? How very serious
Will her handsome face become;
Are you angry? She is wretched,
Lonely, friendless, tearful, dumb.
Are you mirthful? How her laughter,
Silver-sounding, will ring out;
She can lure and catch and play you,
As the angler does the trout.

You old fossils nearly fifty

Who are plotting, deep, and wise,

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268

THE CRUTCH IN THE CORNER.

You Adonises of twenty,

With the lovelocks in your eyes,
You may practise all the lessons
Taught by Cupid since the fall,
But we know a little widow

Who can win and fool

you all.

66

THE CRUTCH IN THE CORNER. HY, Billy, your room is as cold as the hut We had by the swamp and the river,

"WE

Where we lost our Major, and Tim, you know,
And sixty more with the fever."

"Well, Tom, old fellow, 'tis hard enough,
But the best at times knock under;

66

There's nary a stick of wood in the house,

But that crutch in the corner yonder.

'Sorry I 'listed? Don't ask me that, Tom;
If the flag was again in danger,

I'd aim a gun with this aching stump,

At the foe, were he brother or stranger.
But, I say, ought a wound from shot or shell,
Or a pistol bullet, by thunder,

Forever doom a poor fellow to want,

With that ar in the corner yonder?

"That crutch, old comrade, ought ever to be
A draft at sight on the nation,
For honor, respect, and a friendly hand,-
For clothing, and quarters, and rations..
My wife? She begs at the Hugget-house,
Where the big-bugs live in splendor,

And brag o'er the wine of the fights that brought
Such as that in the corner yonder.

"And Charley: he goes to some place up town—
Some ticket-for-soup arrangement,

All well enough for a hungry boy;
But, Tom, it's effect is estrangement.

THE LAUNCHING OF THE SHIP.

I'd sooner have kicked the bucket twice o'er,
By a shell or a round ten-pounder,
Than live such a life as I'm doing now,
With that ar in the corner yonder.

"There's nary a thing for to pawn or sell,
And the winter has closed on labor;
This medal is all that is left me now,
With my pistol and trusty sabre;
And them, by the sunlight above us, Tom,
No power from my trust can sunder,
Save the Power that releases me at last,
From that ar in the corner yonder.

"I can raise this arm that's left to me,
To the blessed heavens above us,

And swear by the throne of the Father, there,
And the angels all who love us,

That the hand I lost and the hand I have,
Were never yet stained by plunder;
And for love of the dear old flag, I now
Use that ar in the corner yonder.

"Do I ask too much when I say, we boys,
Who lost for the nation's glory,

Now that the danger is past and gone,

In comfort should tell our story.

How should we have fought when the mad shells screamed

And shivered our ranks, I wonder,

Had we known that our lot would have been to beg
With that ar in the corner yonder?"

269

THE LAUNCHING OF THE SHIP.-H. W. LONGFELLOW.

ALL is finished, and at length

-Has come the bridal day

Of beauty and of strength.
To-day the vessel shall be launched!
With fleecy clouds the sky is blanched,

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He waits impatient for his bride.
There she stands,

With her foot upon the sands,

Decked with flags and streamers gay,

In honor of her marriage-day,

Her snow-white signals, fluttering, blending.

Round her like a veil descending,

Ready to be

The bride of the gray old sea.

Then the Master,

With a gesture of command,

Waved his hand;

And at the word,

Loud and sudden there was heard,

All around them and below,

The sound of hammers, blow on blow,

Knocking away the shores and spurs.
And see! she stirs!

She starts! she moves! she seems to feel
The thrill of life along her keel,

And, spurning with her foot the ground,
With one exulting, joyous bound,

She leaps into the ocean's arms!

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