The Washington Critic

SHE SHOWED HIM STARS

For every shooting-star he claimed a kiss
She, seeming coy, at first demurred to this;
But he, persisting, would not be denied,
When he at length a dying meteor spied.

And so, as evening grew apace, their eyes
Oft scanned the glittering aspect of the skies;
And when a darting star caught either's sight
A sound of kissing broke upon the night,

And so it came to pass anon that she
Look'd for a shooting-star as much as he
Nay, if by chance a star escaped his view
She called his wandering fancy to it, too.

When intervals seemed long between each hug,
She called him on a passing lightning-bug;
And, ever taxing her ingenious mind,
Her ready wit enabled her to find

More shooting-stars in three short fleeting hours
Than would come from whole meteoric showers.

But when she did her last pretext exhaust,
And was about to yield her cause as lost.
She saw a switchman's lantern circling swing
And got the youth down to a steady thing.

-[Vassar Miscellany.