I hear the rustle of her dress, I smell the lilacs, and — ah, yes, Sweet piece of bashful maiden art! The English words had seemed too fain, She said, "Auf Wiedersehen!" JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.1 DOROTHY Q.2 A FAMILY PORTRAIT. GRANDMOTHER's mother: her age, I guess, Smooth, square forehead with uprolled hair, 1 JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, the son of the Rev. Charles Lowell, and descended from an old and distinguished New England family, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1819. He graduated from Harvard College in 1838, studied law and was admitted to the bar, which he soon deserted for literature. In 1855 he was appointed to succeed Mr. Longfellow as professor of belles-lettres in Harvard College. As critic, essayist, satirist, and poet, he holds a high place in the literature of the century and of his own country. He was appointed United States minister to Spain in 1877, and in 1880 was promoted to the higher position of United States minister at London, a post which he held till 1885. He died in Cambridge in 1891. 2 Dorothy Quincy married Edward Jackson and thus became the ancestress of the poet. The portrait which is the subject of the poem is in the possession of Judge O. W. Holmes. Lips that lover has never kissed; On her hand a parrot green Look! there's a rent the light shines through, Who the painter was none may tell, Flat as a rose that has long been pressed; Dainty colors of red and white, Look not on her with eyes of scorn, O Damsel Dorothy! Dorothy Q.! Save to daughter or son might bring, Mother and sister and child and wife What if a hundred years ago Those close-shut lips had answered No, One tenth another, to nine tenths me? Soft is the breath of a maiden's YES: Not the light gossamer stirs with less; There were tones in the voice that whispered ther You may hear to-day in a hundred men. O lady and lover, how faint and far A goodly record for Time to show It shall be a blessing, my little maid! . And freshen the gold of the tarnished frame, As first you greeted the morning's light, OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES WHAT MR. ROBINSON THINKS.1 GUVENER B. is a sensible man; He stays to his home an' looks arter his folks; Sez he wunt vote fer Guvener B. thet 's flat My! ain't it terrible? Wut shall we du? An' go in fer thunder an' guns, an' all that; Fer John P. Sez he wunt vote fer Guvener B. Gineral C. is a dreffle smart man: He's ben on all sides thet give places or pelf; which was 1 This satire was directed against the Mexican war, forced upon the country in 1845, by the South, in conformity with their policy of an extension of slave territory. But consistency still wuz a part of his plan, So John P. Robinson he Sez he shall vote fer Gineral C. Gineral C. he goes in fer the war; He don't vally principle more 'n an old cud; Wut did God make us raytional creeturs fer, But glory an' gunpowder, plunder an' blood? So John P. Robinson he Sez he shall vote fer Gineral C. We were gittin' on nicely up here to our village, Sez this kind o' thing 's an exploded idee. The side of our country must ollers be took, Robinson he Sez this is his view o' the thing to a T. Parson Wilbur he calls all these argimunts lies; Sez they're nothin' on airth but jest fee, faw, fum An' thet all this big talk of our destinies Is half on it ign'ance, an' t' other half rum; |