THE GIRLS YOU KNOW.

Otago Witness, Issue 2399, 22 February 1900, Page 54

THE GIRLS YOU KNOW.

To il. S. There's Ilia givl that rocked you gently, "When to sleep you wouldn't go; Because fche looker! so lovely — And the music pleased you so. There's the mem'ry, nigh forgotten, Of a girl with golden hair, Who came and went, like comets cross | The slar-besrargled air. There's the girl ' Khow like an echo Of the old school bell it comes) Who wiote your spelling on her slate, And totted up your sums, There's the riil (ah! dainty sinner) Who persiiAc'cd you to watch For mother, while she manufactured Toothsome butterscotch. There's the girl who thought she loved you, And the girl that you admired, When logiush eyes and dimpled checks IS r o deeper thought inspire:!. Theie's the girt that angels =oughi for When they saw you mope along, Who came with angel viles to take The sadness horn your son«. There's the girl diat likes jthineclm be&fc Of all the island towns; A place, she says, where summer vies With autumn's choicest browns, To weave with lecollection fond Aioutid the he-pit a wreath Of flower« that climb her mountain side. Or deck her gentle Leith. And when she comes to see you In the City of the Plains, The visit brightens tip your heart Like dear Duuedin rams. Oh! pleasant aro the faces Of ths girls you call your own; They cheer the earth like loses O'er a biidal pathway strewn. The sunny s:ailes of friendship — The love of homeland; yet Another blossom grows and blooms —■ The ;ui' you've never met! You've never se°n the maiden so, To write her fair or dirk; Or whether Psyche's mmd style Or Venus"'; her mark. You've never touched the snowy hand That heroes might have v;oced — What matter all these attributes? You know that she is good. And knowing this, all else is fair; Tho' form and feature plain. The soul must watch her faintest smile, As daisies watch for rain. As mercy doth a monarch, So doth thi-5 a maiden crown; A truth which lasts while ages mow The mighty foiests down. "Envhon.iient has mostly got to do With forming lives, Against the very worst of which Oyk finer nature strives. Amid -the very best of it — When woman reigns supreme — A man has little cause to mourn " The man 1)8 might have been! " Spreydon, February 2. —J- M.