Part 2 (1/2)

[Ill.u.s.tration: ”VIDE UT SUPRA”

”The sad sea waves”]

LEST MEN FORGET;

_Or, A Girl's best Friend is the River_

[This is to be a river season. Father Thames is an excellent matchmaker.--_Lady's Pictorial._]

Oh, what is a maid to do When never a swain will woo; When Viennese dresses And eddying tresses And eyes of a heavenly blue,

Are treated with high disdain By the cold and the careless swain, When soft showered glances At dinners and dances Are sadly but truly vain?

Ah, then, must a maid despair?

Ah, no, but betimes repair With her magical tresses And summery dresses To upper Thames reaches, where

She turns her wan cheek to the sun (Of lesser swains she will none); Her glorious flame, Well skilled in the game, Flings kisses that burn like fun

And cheeks that had lost their charm Grow rosy and soft and warm; Eyes lately so dull Of sun-light are full As masculine hearts with alarm.

For jealousy by degrees Steals over the swain who sees The cheek he was slighting Another delighting, And so he is brought to his knees.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AT THE UNIVERSITY BOAT-RACE

_Extract from Miss X's letter to a friend in the country_:--”Mr. Robin Blobbs offered to take us in his boat. Aunt accepted for Jenny, f.a.n.n.y, Ethel, little Mary, and myself. Oh, such a time! Mr. Blobbs lost his head and his scull, and we were just rescued from upset by the police.

'Never again with you, Robin!'”]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

THE AMATEUR YACHTSMAN

(_A Nautical Song of the Period_)

I'm bad when at sea, yet it's pleasant to me To charter a yacht and go sailing, But please understand I ne'er lose sight of land, Though hardier sailors are railing.

If only the s.h.i.+p, that's the yacht, wouldn't dip, And heel up and down and roll over, And wobble about till I want to get out, I'd think myself fairly in clover.

But, bless you! my craft, though the wind is abaft, Will stagger when meeting the ripple, Until a man feels both his head and his heels Reversed as if full of his tipple.

In vain my blue serge when from seas we emerge, Though dressed as a nautical dandy; I can't keep my legs, and I call out for ”pegs”

Of rum, or of soda and brandy.