So the fluting on the hill Passed and died, and all was still. So the Pagan Pickings died, And I laid the pipe aside.

[Pg 93]

[Pg 93]

THE LAUNDRY OF LIFE

(An Adventure in Sentiment.)

(An Adventure in Sentiment.)

  Life is a laundry in which we Are ironed out, or soon or late. Who has not known the irony Of fate?

Of fate?

  We enter it when we are born, Our colors bright. Full soon they fade. We leave it “done up,” old and worn, And frayed;

And frayed;

  Frayed round the edges, worn and thin—  Life is a rough old linen slinger. Who has not lost a button in Life’s wringer?

Life’s wringer?

  With other linen we are tubbed, With other linen often tangled; In open court we then are scrubbed, And mangled.

And mangled.

  Some take a gloss of happiness The hardest wear can not diminish; Others, alas! get a “domes- Tic finish.”

Tic finish.”

[Pg 94]

[Pg 94]

WISDOM IN A CAPSULE

 “If she be not so to me. What care I how fair she be?” —The Shepherd’s Resolution.

 Prev. P 57/75 next