And thus having ended this merry wedding,
The bride lookt as fresh as a queen,

And so they returned to the merry greenwood,
Amongst the leaves so green.

YOU ARE OLD, FATHER WILLIAM.

From ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND.

Lewis Carroll.

"You are old, father William," the young man said,
"And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head -
Do you think, at your age, it is right?”

"In my youth," father William replied to his son,

"I feared it might injure the brain;

But now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,

Why, I do it again and again."

"You are old," said the youth, "as I mentioned before,
And have grown most uncommonly fat;

Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door —
Pray, what is the reason of that?"

"In my youth," said the sage, as he shook his gray locks,

"I kept all my limbs very supple

By the use of this ointment - one shilling the box

Allow me to sell you a couple."

"You are old," said the youth, "and your jaws are too weak For anything tougher than suet;

Yet

you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak: Pray, how did you manage to do it?"

"In my youth," said his father, "I took to the law,

And argued each case with my wife;

And the muscular strength, which it gave to my jaw,
Has lasted the rest of my life."

"You are old," said the youth; "one would hardly suppose That your eye was as steady as ever;

Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose

What made you so awfully clever?"

"I have answered three questions, and that is enough," Said his father; "don't give yourself airs!

Do

you think I can listen all day to such stuff? Be off, or I'll kick you down stairs!"

YOUTH AND AGE.

William Shakespeare.

CRABBED age and youth cannot live together:
Youth is full of pleasance, age is full of care;
Youth like summer morn, age like winter weather;
Youth like summer brave, age like winter bare.
Youth is full of sport, age's breath is short;

Youth is nimble, age is lame;

Youth is hot and bold, age is weak and cold;

Youth is wild, and age is tame.

Age, I do abhor thee; youth, I do adore thee;
O, my love, my love is young!

Age, I do defy thee: O, sweet shepherd, hie thee,

THE BALLAD OF EAST AND WEST.

Rudyard Kipling.

Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall

meet,

Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat; But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth, When two strong men stand face to face, tho' they come from the ends of the earth.

Kamal is out with twenty men to raise the Border side,

And he has lifted the Colonel's mare that is the Colonel's pride: He has lifted her out of the stable-door between the dawn and

the day,

And turned the calkins upon her feet, and ridden her far away. Then up and spoke the Colonel's son that led a troop of the Guides:

"Is there never a man of all my men can say where Kamal hides?"

Then up and spoke Mahommed Khan, the son of the Ressaldar, "If ye know the track of the morning-mist, ye know where his pickets are.

At dusk he harries the Abazai at dawn he is into Bonair, But he must go by Fort Bukloh to his own place to fare,

So if ye gallop to Fort Bukloh as fast as a bird can fly,

By the favor of God ye may cut him off ere he win to the Tongue of Jagai,

But if he be passed the Tongue of Jagai, right swiftly turn ye

then,

For the length and the breadth of that grisly plain is sown with Kamal's men.

There is rock to the left, and rock to the right, and low lean thorn between,

And ye may hear a breech-bolt snick where never a man is seen."

The Colonel's son has taken a horse, and a raw rough dun

was he,

With the mouth of a bell, and the heart of Hell, and the head of the gallows-tree.

The Colonel's son to the Fort has won, they bid him stay to

eat

Who rides at the tail of a Border thief, he sits not long at his

meat.

He's up and away from Fort Bukloh as fast as he can fly,

Till he was aware of his father's mare in the gut of the Tongue

of Jagai,

Till he was aware of his father's mare with Kamal upon her

back,

And when he could spy the white of her eye, he made the

pistol crack.

He has fired once, he has fired twice, but the whistling ball

went wide.

"Ye shoot like a soldier," Kamal said.

It's

ride."

up

"Show now if ye can

and over the Tongue of Jagai, as blown dust-devils go, The dun he fled like a stag of ten, but the mare like a barren

doe.

The dun he leaned against the bit and slugged his head above, But the red mare played with the snaffle-bars, as a maiden plays with a glove.

There was rock to the left, and rock to the right, and low lean thorn between,

And thrice he heard a breech-bolt snick tho' never a man was

seen.

They have ridden the low moon out of the sky, their hoofs

drum up the dawn,

The dun he went like a wounded bull, but the mare like a new

roused fawn.

The dun he fell at a water-course in a woful heap fell he,

And Kamal has turned the red mare back, and pulled the rider

free.

He has knocked the pistol out of his hand

small room was

there to strive, ""Twas only by favor of mine," quoth he, "ye rode so long alive: There was not a rock for twenty mile, there was not a clump

of tree,

But covered a man of my own men with his rifle cocked on his knee.

If I had raised my bridle-hand, as I have held it low,

The little jackals that flee so fast were feasting all in a row:
If I had bowed my head on my breast, as I have held it high,
The kite that whistles above us now were gorged till she could
not fly."

Lightly answered the Colonel's son:

beast,

"Do good to bird and

But count who come for the broken meats before thou makest a feast.

If there should follow a thousand swords to carry my bones

away,

Belike the price of a jackal's meal were more than a thief

could pay.

They will feed their horse on the standing crop, their men on the garnered grain,

The thatch of the byres will serve their fires when all the cattle are slain.

But if thou thinkest the price be fair, thy brethren wait

to sup,