u.--
Say good-by er howdy-do!

{59}

Howdy-do, and then, good-by--
Mixes jes' like laugh and cry;
Deaths and births, and worst and best,
Tangled their contrariest;
Ev'ry jinglin' weddin'-bell
Skeerin' up some funer'l knell.--
Here's my song, and there's your sigh.--
Howdy-do, and then, good-by!

Say good-by er howdy-do--
Jes' the same to me and you;
'Taint worth while to make no fuss,
'Cause the job's put up on us!
Some One's runnin' this concern
That's got nothin' else to learn:
Ef _He's_ willin', we'll pull through--
Say good-by er howdy-do!

[Illustration: Good-by er howdy-do--tailpiece]

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WHEN WE THREE MEET

When we three meet? Ah! friend of mine
Whose verses well and flow as wine,--
My thirsting fancy thou dost fill
With draughts delicious, sweeter still
Since tasted by those lips of thine.

I pledge thee, through the chill sunshine
Of autumn, with a warmth divine,
Thrilled through as only I shall thrill
When we three meet.

I pledge thee, if we fast or dine,
We yet shall loosen, line by line,
Old ballads, and the blither trill
Of our-time singers--for there will
Be with us all the Muses nine
When we three meet.

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[Illustration: "The little man in the tinshop"--headpiece]

"THE LITTLE MAN IN THE TINSHOP"

When I was a little boy, long ago,
And spoke of the theater as the "show,"
The first one that I went to see,
Mother's brother it was took me--
(My uncle, of course, though he seemed to be
Only a boy--I loved him so!)
And ah, how pleasant he made it all!
And the things he knew that _I_ should know!--
The stage, the "drop," and the frescoed wall;
The sudden flash of the lights; and oh,
The orchestra, with its melody,
And the lilt and jingle and jubilee
Of "The Little Man in the Tinshop"!

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For Uncle showed me the "Leader" there,
With his pale, bleak forehead and long, black hair;
Showed me the "Second," and "'Cello," and "Bass,"
And the "B-Flat," pouting and puffing his face
At the little end of the horn he blew
Silvery bubbles of music through;
And he coined me names of them, each in turn,
Some comical name that I laughed to learn,
Clean on down to the last and best,--
The lively little man, never at rest,
Who hides away at the end of the string,
And tinkers and plays on everything,--
That's "The Little M