The Child and the Sea-Shell.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1218, 30 January 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Child and the Sea-Shell.

Bx Mas. M. E. Bobbins.

Reprinted from " Godeifs Lady's Book," 1843 CHILD. Why do you moan so, pretty shell ? You look so bright, I can not tell. I laugh to Bee your brilliant dye, T weep to hear your mournful sigh. SHELL. You must tell me why you weep, Or my secret I shall keep, Listen in your heart and hear — Are there no low murmurs there / CHILD. That is why you make me weep. Sometimes, when I go to sleep, Come such murmurs in my ear As like songe I used to hear ; What they mean I can not tell. Whisper to me, pretty Bhell : Is it that we love each other, And our home was once together ? BHELIi. Little child, I love the ooean— onoe it lulled me with its motion — And the cool and curling billow, while I slept, would kiss my pillow. Onoe you had a higher home, whence all infant spirits come, And the murmurs in your ear are the songs you used to hear ; If you do as these shall say, you will find your home one day. An Irishwoman named Betsy Lawson threw a kerosene lamp at. her fourteen-year-old daughter. Presumably this was to make the girl " all fired quiok." . It is not stated what part of the Green Isle Mrs. Lawson hails from, but this looks very muoh like a Kerry soene. - He thought, when he read the editor's sheet, That was livid with rage and blazing with ire, He was a'wfld demon with claws on his feet, A drinker of gore, and an eater of fire ! But he found, when he saw him at home with his wife, * He was meek and resigned as an innocent g°y; A lover of peace, and a hater of strife, A drinker of soda, and eater of pie I —Lynn Union,