THE ISLE OF LONG AGO. O a wonderful stream is the river Time, How the winters are drifting, like flakes of snow, And the year in the sheaf, so they come and they go, As it glides in the shadow and sheen. There's a magical isle up the river Time, And the Junes with the roses are straying. And the name of that Isle is the Long Ago, There are brows of beauty and bosoms of snow; There are fragments of song that nobody sings, There's a lute unswept, and a harp without strings; And the garments that she used to wear. There are hands that are waved when the fairy shore By the mirage is lifted in air, And we sometimes hear through the turbulent roar Sweet voices we heard in the days gone before. When the wind down the river is fair. O remembered for aye, be the blessed Isle,, When the evening comes with its beautiful smile, THE GEOGRAPHY DEMON. I hate my geography lesson! It's nothing but nonsense and names I think it's the greatest of shames. The brooks they flow into the rivers, Of late, even more I've disliked it, I thought that a great horrid monster Enveloped in darkness and gloom; His body and head like a mountain, His arms and his legs were like rivers, He laid on my poor trembling shoulder He roared forth this horrible song: "Come! come! rise and come It flows o'er the plains of Timbuctoo, With the peak of Teneriffe just in view. And the cataracts leap in the pale moonshine, As they dance o'er the cliffs of the Brandywine. "Flee! flee! rise and flee Away to the banks of the Tombigbee! "We'll pass by Alaska's flowery strand, While the apes of Barbary frisk around, "Hie! hie! rise and hie Away to the banks of Yangtzeki! Where the giant mountains of Oshkosh stand, And the icebergs gleam through the falling sand; While the elephant sits on the palm tree high And the cannibals feast on bad boy pie. "Go! go! rise and go Away to the banks of the Hoangho; There the Chickasaw sachem makes his tea, These terrible words were still sounding Like trumpets and drums through my head, When the monster clutched tighter my shoulder, And dragged me half out of the bed. In terror I clung to the bedpost; but the I screamed out aloud in my anguish, He was gone, but I cannot forget him, |