How often I'd sat down and pictured the scenes in our long, happy life; How I'd strive through all my life time, to build up a home for my wife; How people would envy us always in our cozy and neat little nest; How I should do all of the labor, and Maggie should all the day rest; How one of God's blessings might cheer us, how some day I p'raps should be rich; But all of my dreams have been shattered, while I laid there asleep at the switch! I fancied I stood on my trial, the jury and judge I could see; And every eye in the court room was steadily fixed upon me; And fingers were pointed in scorn, till I felt my face blushing blood-red, And the next thing I heard were the words," Hanged by the neck until dead." Then I felt myself pulled once again, and my hand caught tight hold of a dress, And I heard, "What's the matter, dear Jim? You've had a bad nightmare, I guess!" And there stood Maggie, my wife, with never a scar from the ditch. I'd been taking a nap in my bed, and had not been "Asleep at the switch." BEFORE SEDAN.-AUSTIN DOBSON. Here, in this leafy place, Quiet he lies, Cold, with his sightless face "Tis but another dead; Carry his body hence,— Kings must have slaves; So this man's eye is dim;- What was the white you touched, There, at his side? Paper his hand had clutched Tight e'er he died ;- Message or wish, may be ;- Here could have smiled!- Words of a child;— Prattle, that has for stops Look. She is sad to miss, Ah, if beside the dead Ah, if the hearts that bled If the grief died;--But no;— THE GAME KNUT PLAYED.-THOMAS DUNN ENGLISH. A page who seemed of low degree, So let a wager guerdon thought." He answered, "Lady, naught have I Whose worth might tempt a princess high Her uttermost of skill to try." "And yet this ruby ring," she said, With snow-white plume that crowns thy head. And so they played, as sank the sun; "My diamond necklace," then she cried, "Fit only for a true man's touch, And flashed those eyes of hers like fire. "Thy words, bold youth, shall work thee ill: Thou canst not win against my skill, But I can punish at my will. "Begin the game; that hilt so fine Pawns fell in combat one by one; Knights, rooks and bishops could not shun Their fate before that game was done. Well fought the battle was, I ween, "Check!" cried the page, and sealed the fate Of her beleaguered king with "mate!" ZZZZ The princess smiled, and said: "I lose, BURDOCK'S GOAT. Last Monday afternoon the eleven Boblink boys surrounded and caught an enormous, shaggy, strong-smelling goat of the masculine gender, turned him loose in Burdock's garden, nailed up the gate, and then went home and flattened their eleven little noses against the back windows to watch for coming events. Before his goatship had spent three minutes in the garden, he had managed to make himself perfectly at home, pulled down the clothes-line, and devoured two lace collars, a pair of undersleeves, and a striped stocking, belonging to Mrs. Burdock, and was busily engaged sampling one of Burdock's shirts, when the servant girl came rushing out with a basket of clothes to hang up. "The saints preserve us!" she exclaimed, coming to a dead halt, and gazing open-mouthed at the goat, who was calmly munching away at the shirt. "Shew, shew, shew, there!" screamed the girl, setting down the basket, taking her skirts in both hands, and shaking them violently towards the intruder. Then the goat who evidently considered her movements in the light of a challenge, suddenly dropped his wicked old head, and darted at her with the force of an Erie locomotive; and just one minute later by the city-hall clock that girl had tumbled a back somersault over the clothes-basket, and was crawling away on her hands and knees in search of a place to die, accompanied by the goat, who was butting her unmercifully every third second. It is likely that he would have kept on butting her for the next two weeks, if Mrs. Burdock, who had been a witness of the unfortunate affair, had not armed herself with the family poker, and hurried to the rescue. "Merciful goodness, Anne! do get up on your feet!" she exclaimed, aiming a blow at the beast's head, and missing it by a few of the shortest kind of inches. It was not repeated, owing to the goat suddenly rising up on his hind-feet, waltzing toward her, and striking her in the small of the back, hard enough to loosen her finger-nails, and destroy her faith in the blessed immortality. When Mrs. Burdock returned to her consciousness, she crawled out from behind the grindstone where she had been tossed, and made for the house; stopping only once, when the goat came after, and butted her, head first, into the grape-arbor. Once inside the house, the door was locked, and the unfortunates sought the solitude of their own rooms, and such comfort as they could extract from rubbing and growling; while the goat wandered around the garden like Satan in the Book of Job, seeking what he might devour; and the eleven little Boblink boys fairly hugged themselves with pleasure over the performance. By the time Burdock returned home that evening, and learned all the particulars from his arnica-soaked wife, the goat had eaten nearly all the week's washing, half the grapevine, and one side out of the clothes-basket. 66 'Why in thunder didn't you put him out, and not leave him there to destroy every thing?” he demanded angrily. |