| |
| MY little friend, so small and neat, | |
| Whom years ago I used to meet | |
| In Pall Mall daily; | |
| How cheerily you tript away | |
| To work,—it might have been to play, | 5 |
| You tript so gayly. | |
| |
| And Time trips too. This moral means | |
| You then were midway in the teens | |
| That I was crowning; | |
| We never spoke, but when I smiled | 10 |
| At morn or eve, I know, dear child, | |
| You were not frowning. | |
| |
| Each morning when we met, I think | |
| Some sentiment did us two link, | |
| Nor joy nor sorrow; | 15 |
| And then at eve, experience-taught, | |
| Our hearts returned upon the thought,— | |
| We meet to-morrow! | |
| |
| And you were poor; and how?—and why? | |
| How kind to come, it was for my | 20 |
| Especial grace meant! | |
| Had you a chamber near the stars, | |
| A bird,—some treasured plants in jars, | |
| About your casement? | |
| |
| I often wander up and down, | 25 |
| When morning bathes the silent town | |
| In golden glory; | |
| Perhaps, unwittingly, I ’ve heard | |
| Your thrilling-toned canary-bird | |
| From some third story. | 30 |
| |
| I ’ve seen great changes since we met; | |
| A patient little seamstress yet, | |
| With small means striving, | |
| Have you a Liliputian spouse? | |
| And do you dwell in some doll’s house? | 35 |
| Is baby thriving? | |
| |
| My heart grows chill; can bloom like thine | |
| Have past from this dear world of mine | |
| To one far meeter? | |
| To one whose promised joys are worth | 40 |
| The best, and more, of Mother Earth, | |
| And is it sweeter? | |
| |
| Sometimes I to Pall Mall repair, | |
| And see the damsels passing there; | |
| But if I try to | 45 |
| Obtain one glance, they look discreet, | |
| As though they ’d some one else to meet; | |
| As have not I too? | |
| |
| Yet still I often think upon | |
| Our many meetings, come and gone! | 50 |
| July—December! | |
| Now let us make a tryst, and when, | |
| Dear little soul, we meet again,— | |
| The mansion is preparing,—then | |
| Thy friend remember! | 55 |
| |
