Page 375 - The model orator, or, Young folks' speaker : containing the choicest recitations and readings from the best authors for schools, public entertainments, social gatherings, Sunday schools, etc. : including recitals in prose and verse ...

Then sleep, dear lady; thy fringed lids close,
I’imona of cherubim fan thy repose,
While through thy casement, slightly ajar,
Steal the sweet notes of my soft guitar.

Then the lady her “ secret pain” confessed
Wilh tlie plaintive murmur, 4< Oh, give us a rest.’ »

Chide me not harshly, O lady fair!
Bend from ihy lattice and hear my prayer.
Sighing for thee, I wander afar,
Mournfully touching my soft guitar.

And the lady answered ; “ You stupid thing.
If you’ve got the catarrh, stop trying to sing!”

Cruel, but fair one, thy scorn restrain!
Better death's quiet than thy disdain.
I go to fail in some distant war,
Bearing in battle my loved guitar.

Answered the lady: “ Well, hurry and go!
I'm holding the slop-basin ready to throw."

False one, I leave thee! When J’am at rest
Stilt shall my memory haunt thy breast;
A spectral vision thy joy shall mar—
A skeleton playing a soft guitar!

And the lady cried, in a scornful tone,
" Old skeleton, go it—and play it alone/ "

Then the lover in agony roamed afar—
Fell drunk in the gutter and smashed his guitar,
P. H. B owne.