Was this noble work built up by the ‘masses,’

Or by one of the ‘miserly, upper classes’?”

To the Spirit, this speech was quite unexpected,

And he stood in a sort of stupid dismay;

And before his few scattered thoughts were collected,

She rightly concluded—he’d Nothing to Say.

Then she lifted her skirts with a masterly hand,

And out of the puddles and ruts kept them well up,—

Thus showed that she had the most perfect command

Of the crinoline mysteries of her envelope,

’Twas done with the daintiest grace all the while,

And discovered the daintiest possible gaiter,—

Then she turned to her friend with a nod and a smile,

And told him to follow—he straightway obeyed her.

As they hurried along, she kept ever before him,

And he kept his eye on the tempting prunella,

Secretly hoping there’d come such a shower

As would make a new Flood in half-an-hour—

That she, with a womanly care for her bonnet,

Which would “spot,” with the least drop of water upon it,

 Prev. P 11/19 next