nest facts is, _then_,
Addeliney Bower-
Sox's feelin's was so hurt
She cried half an hour!

My dest was acrost from her 'n:
Set and watched her tryin'
To p'tend she didn't keer,
And a kind o' dryin'
Up her tears with smiles---tel I
Thought, "Well, '_Addeliney
Bowersox_' is plain, but _she's_
Purty as a piney!"

It's be'n many of a year
Sence that most oncommon
Cur'ous name o' _Bowersox_
Struck me so abomin-
Nubble and outlandish-like!--
I changed it to Adde-
Liney _Daubenspeck_--and _that_
Nearly killed her Daddy!

TO AN IMPORTUNATE GHOST.

Get gone, thou most uncomfortable ghost!
Thou really dost annoy me with thy thin
Impalpable transparency of grin;
And the vague, shadowy shape of thee almost
Hath vext me beyond boundary and coast
Of my broad patience. Stay thy chattering chin,
And reel the tauntings of thy vain tongue in,
Nor tempt me further with thy vaporish boast
That I am _helpless_ to combat thee! Well,
Have at thee, then! Yet if a doom most dire
Thou wouldst escape, flee whilst thou canst!--Revile
Me not, Miasmic Mist!--Rank Air! _retire_!
One instant longer an thou haunt'st me, I'll
_Inhale_ thee, O thou wraith despicable!

THE QUARREL.

They faced each other: Topaz-brown
And lambent burnt her eyes and shot
Sharp flame at his of amethyst.--
"I hate you! Go, and be forgot
As death forgets!" their glitter _hissed_
(So _seemed_ it) in their hatred. Ho!
Dared any mortal front her so?--
Tempestuous eyebrows knitted down--
Tense nostril, mouth--no muscle slack,--
And black--the suffocating black--
The stifling blackness of her frown!

Ah! but the lifted face of her!
And the twitched lip and tilted head!
Yet he did neither wince nor stir,--
Only--his hands clenched; and, instead
Of words, he answered with a stare
That stammered not in aught it said,
As might his voice if trusted there.

And what--what spake his steady gaze?--
Was there a look that harshly fell
To scoff her?--or a syllable
Of anger?--or the bitter phrase
That myrrhs the honey of love's lips,
Or curdles blood as poison drips?
What made their breasts to heave and swell
As billows under bows of ships
In broken seas on stormy days?
We may not know--nor _they_ indeed--
What mercy found them in their need.

A sudden sunlight smote the gloom;