Select Poetry.

Otago Witness, Issue 643, 26 March 1864, Page 21

Sele ct Poetry.

EXPECTATION.

Come, sister, we'll put up the holly, You know who is coming at last • Ah ! how we shall seem in the present To live o'er again all the past. You do not remember poor Charlie ! "fis five years at least since we met; And then you were aUof you children ! And children co quickly forget ! He used to be fond of old customs. The yule-log, plum-pudding, and all ; And oh ! above all things remember A mistletoe-bough in the hall. I wonder if he has forgotten, Amidst his Australian life, His vow to come back to Old England Whenever he wanted a wife 1 Hark ! was that the wind or a carriage? He surely can't reach us so soon ; Tho' he has told us, you know, to expect him Any time betwixt midnight and noon, I wonder if he is much alter'd, And whether his whiskers are grown ; I wonder — but whnt does it matter? Make haste, we shall never have done. What dress do you think I look best in ! I remember he used* to like blue; Come, hasten, and clear all that litter, You know we have plenty to do. What's this? What, a letter from Charlie? Oh, ma, dear ! what has he to say ? Why, thinks it but right just to mention That he has been married since May. There, there, that'll do— l don't mind it— But married ! Well, well, I declare, Young men always do something foolish, When once they get roaming out there. Look pde, do you say ? You're mistaken, I ne'er was so well in my life ; I only felt— well- felt astonish'd To hear Cousin Charles had a wife !

F. P. A.