ould seem to see our finish--
Dashed beneath the waters cold.

"Yet the bridge still held, but trembled,
--Gleamed the torrent chilly, vast,--
And the weight of one Blue Bonnet
Broke the camel's back at last!"

"Who did it?" cried Blue Bonnet.

"All three helped," said Carita. "But I think Sandy did most."

"He must be cleverer than he looks," said Blue Bonnet.

"Why, don't you think he looks clever?" exclaimed Kitty, "I do."

"It wasn't clever of him to have sandy hair," Blue Bonnet declared
perversely.

"As if he could help it!" said Sarah.

"We must write a 'pome,' too," said Blue Bonnet.

"We?" exclaimed Debby. "I never found two words to rhyme in all my
life. You and Kitty are the only ones who ever 'drop into poetry.'"

"The muse must be partial to red hair," said Amanda. And though Kitty
sniffed insultedly at this insinuation, her bright head was soon bent
over a pad beside Blue Bonnet's, and after much chewing of their
pencils and shrieks of laughter at impossible rhymes, the two of them
finally evolved the following:

WE ARE SEVEN

"You marvel that a simple band
Of maidens, young and fair,
Should linger ever on the land,
Nor for the water care?

"If you should ask in dulcet tone
Why for the earth they sigh,
They'll weep, they'll shriek, they'll give a groan,--
But they will answer why.

"'Last night we were a happy bunch,
Last night about eleven--'
Quoth you--'But why this sorry lot?
How many members have you got?'
They'll answer--'We Are Seven.'

"'But seven are not all alive?'
'Yea, yea, thou trifling varlet,
Though here we number only five,--
Two caught a fever scarlet.

"'And o'er us five whose courage great
Brought us to far-off Texas,
There seems to brood an awful fate,
And trials sore to vex us.

"'To-day the bridge on which we stood
And posed above the rippling wave,
Alas! was made of rotten wood
And plunged us in a watery grave.'

"'Then ye are dead! All five are dead!
Their spirits are in heaven!'
'Tis throwing words away, for still
These maidens five will have their will,
And answer--'We Are Seven!'"

"I wonder what Mr. Wordsworth would say to that?" said De