When a merry maiden marries, Sorrow goes and pleasure tarries; Every sound becomes a song, All is right and nothing's wrong! From to-day and ever after Let your tears be tears of laughter-- Every sigh that finds a vent Be a sigh of sweet content! When you marry merry maiden, Then the air with love is laden; Every flower is a rose, Every goose becomes a swan, Every kind of trouble goes Where the last year's snows have gone; Sunlight takes the place of shade When you marry merry maid! When a merry maiden marries Sorrow goes and pleasure tarries; Every sound becomes a song, All is right, and nothing's wrong. Gnawing Care and aching Sorrow, Get ye gone until to-morrow; Jealousies in grim array, Ye are things of yesterday! When you marry merry maiden, Then the air with joy is laden; All the corners of the earth Ring with music sweetly played, Worry is melodious mirth, Grief is joy in masquerade; Sullen night is laughing day-- All the year is merry May! [Illustration] [Illustration] THE THREE KINGS OF CHICKERABOO There were three niggers of Chickeraboo-- PACIFICO, BANG-BANG, POPCHOP--who Exclaimed, one terribly sultry day, "Oh, let's be kings in a humble way." The first was a highly-accomplished "bones," The next elicited banjo tones, The third was a quiet, retiring chap, Who danced an excellent break-down "flap." "We niggers," said they, "have formed a plan By which, whenever we like, we can Extemporise kingdoms near the beach, And then we'll collar a kingdom each. "Three casks, from somebody else's stores, Shall represent our island shores, Their sides the ocean wide shall lave, Their heads just topping the briny wave. "Great Britain's navy scours the sea, And everywhere her ships they be; She'll recognise our rank, perhaps, When she discovers we're Royal Chaps. "If to her skirts you want to cling, It's quite sufficient that you're a king; She does not push inquiry far To learn what sort of king you are." A ship of several thousand tons, And mounting seventy-something guns, Ploughed, every year, the ocean blue, Discovering kings and countries new. The brave REAR-ADMIRAL BAILEY PIP, Commanding that magnificent ship, Perceived one day, his glasses through, The kings that came from Chickeraboo. "Dear eyes!" said ADMIRAL PIP, "I see Three flourishing islands on our lee. And, bless me! most remarkable thing! On every island stands a king! "Come, lower the Admiral's gig," he cried, "And over the dancing waves I'll glide; That low obeisance I may do To those three kings of Chickeraboo!"