I pray you, do not use this thing For vengeance; but if questioning What wound, when dealt your humankind, Goes deepest,—surely he will find Who wrongs _you_, loving _him_ no less— There’s nothing hurts like tenderness. DREAMER, SAY Dreamer, say, will you dream for me A wild sweet dream of a foreign land, Whose border sips of a foaming sea With lips of coral and silver sand; Where warm winds loll on the shady deeps, Or lave themselves in the tearful mist The great wild wave of the breaker weeps O’er crags of opal and amethyst? Dreamer, say, will you dream a dream Of tropic shades in the lands of shine, Where the lily leans o’er an amber stream That flows like a rill of wasted wine,— Where the palm-trees, lifting their shields of green, Parry the shafts of the Indian sun Whose splintering vengeance falls between The reeds below where the waters run? Dreamer, say, will you dream of love That lives in a land of sweet perfume, Where the stars drip down from the skies above In molten spatters of bud and bloom? Where never the weary eyes are wet, And never a sob in the balmy air, And only the laugh of the paroquet Breaks the sleep of the silence there? WHEN LIDE MARRIED _HIM_ When Lide married _him_—w’y, she had to jes dee-fy The whole popilation!—But she never bat’ an eye! Her parents begged, and _threatened_—she must give him up—that _he_ Wuz jes “a common drunkard!”—And he _wuz_, appearantly.— Swore they’d chase him off the place Ef he ever showed his face— Long after she’d _eloped_ with him and _married_ him fer shore!— When Lide married _him_, it wuz “_Katy, bar the door!_” When Lide married _him_—Well! she had to go and be A _hired girl_ in town somewheres—while he tromped round to see What _he_ could git that _he_ could do,—you might say, jes sawed wood From door to door!—that’s what he done—’cause that wuz best he could! And the strangest thing, i jing! Wuz, he didn’t _drink_ a thing,— But jes got down to bizness, like he someway _wanted_ to, When Lide married _him_, like they warned her _not_ to do! When Lide married _him_—er, ruther, _had_ be’n married A little up’ards of a year—some feller come and carried That _hired girl_ away with him—a ruther _stylish_ feller In a bran-new green spring-wagon, with the wheels striped red and yeller: And he whispered, as they driv To’rds the country, “_Now we’ll live!_”— And _somepin’ else_ she _laughed_ to hear, though both her eyes wuz dim, ’Bout “_trustin’ Love and Heav’n above_, sence Lide married _him_!” MY BRIDE THAT IS TO BE