THE TRIO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2525, 6 August 1902, Page 58

THE TRIO.

ITo matter how I met them—

No matter }:>lpce or tune That I may not forget them

I pen a grateful rhyme. Before* me rise the faces

Of now friends I have- nisde — Yet three colonial graces

Put all the rest in shade

The first was Bel! — how stately

She lose to greet a friend, How serious and sedately

The torn frocks she would mend! We chaSed and loved to tease her

As " Miss Precise," in fun ; Yet nothing would displease hey,

When all was said and done.

Gay Dorothy — the second —

And on this last night I Eenicmber how she beckoned

Beneath a summer slcy. I deemed her rather quiet

And studious — none the less She joined in every not

With girlish eagerness. The thiid was Florence — sweptly She used to smile and srag, So that pomehow completely

The cares of earth took wing. The tom-boy of the trio—

Yet it was never said, " Go ' get you off to Uio,

Or Halifax instead!"

Ah! graces three, if only Like you the great world gTew. Some hcait3 would feel less lonely, As I have felt with you. The hours we spent in g-ladnesa

When sun or stars were high, Hath given a touch of sadness To-night to nay good-bye. — W. Fhancis Chambers Wellington, July, 1902.