WELL, well, it's all past; yet it's funny To think, as I stood in the glare Of fashion and beauty and money, That I should be thinking, right there, Of some one who breasted high water, And swam the North Fork, and all that, Just to dance with old Folinsbee's daughter, The Lily of Poverty Flat. [Illustration: _And swam the North Fork, and all that, Just to dance with old Folinsbee's daughter_] BUT goodness! what nonsense I'm writing! (Mamma says my taste still is low), Instead of my triumphs reciting, I'm spooning on Joseph,--heigh-ho! And I'm to be "finished" by travel,-- Whatever's the meaning of that. Oh, why did papa strike pay gravel In drifting on Poverty Flat? [Illustration: _Mamma says my taste still is low_] GOOD-NIGHT!--here's the end of my paper; Good-night!--if the longitude please,-- For maybe, while wasting my taper, _Your_ sun's climbing over the trees. But know, if you haven't got riches, And are poor, dearest Joe, and all that, That my heart's somewhere there in the ditches, And you've struck it,--on Poverty Flat. [Illustration: _That my heart's somewhere there in the ditches, And you've struck it,--on Poverty Flat_] [Illustration] HIS ANSWER BEING asked by an intimate party,-- Which the same I would term as a friend,-- Though his health it were vain to call hearty, Since the mind to deceit it might lend; For his arm it was broken quite recent, And there's something gone wrong with his lung,-- Which is why it is proper and decent I should write what he runs off his tongue. [Illustration: _Which is why it is proper and decent I should write what he runs off his tongue_] [Illustration: _Being asked by an intimate party_] FIRST, he says, Miss, he's read through your letter To the end,--and "the end came too soon;" That a "slight illness kept him your debtor," (Which for weeks he was wild as a loon); That "his spirits are buoyant as yours is;" That with you, Miss, he "challenges Fate" (Which the language that invalid uses At times it were vain to relate). [Illustration: _That "his spirits are buoyant as yours is;" That with you, Miss, he "challenges Fate"_]