Page 384 - 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 ...

Keeps flatterin’ me pride, to get me heart in a fix j
And Bridget, you know, has great expectations
From her father that's dead, and lots of relations.
Then there's Biddy OF’arrel, the cunningest elf,
Sings " Patrick, me darlin’,'1 and that means meself.
I might marry them both, if I Jell so inclined,
But there's no use talking of the likes of their kind.
I t:\ites them both alike, without impartiality,
And maintains meself sure on the ground of neutrality.
On me knees, Helen, darlint, I ask your consent
"For better or worse,” without asking a cent.
I'd do anythin" in the world—anything you would say*
If } ou'd he Mistress Dolin instead of Miss Day.
I’d save all me money and buy me a house,
Where nothing should tease us so much as mouse;
And yo.i'li hear nothing else from year out to year in,
But swate words of kindness from Patrick Dolin.
Then—if ye should die—-forgive me the thought.
I ’d always behave as a dacenl man ought.
I ’d spend all me days in wailing and crying
And wish for nothin’ so much as jist to be dying.
Then you'd see on marble slabs, reared up side by side,
“ Here lies Patrick Dolin, and Helen, his bride.1'
Yer indulgence, in conclusion, on me letter I ask,
For to write a love letter is 110 aisy Uisk;
I ’ve an impediment in me speech, as trie letter shows,
And a cold 111 me head makes me write through me nose.
Please write me a letter, in me great-uncle’s care,
With the prescription upon it, “ Patrick Dolin, LiquaTe.1'
(CIn haste,” write in big letters, on the outside of the cover,
And believe me forever, your distractionate lover.
Written wid me own hand.
Ilia
P a t r ic k x D o l in ,
m arL,