Virginia Free Press

I've Been Thinking.

I've been thinking, I've been thinking,
What a curious world we're in,
Men are sleeping, eating, drinking.
Just as they have always been—
Beaux are strutting, dandies quizzing,
Misses toiling night and day,
Boys are sporting, girls are fruzxing.
Grandmas fading away,
Tom is crying, Mary singing,
Jack is laughing merrily,
Dust is flying, tea-bells ringing,
These have music just for me;
Peasants toiling, rich men riding:
Staring with a lordly phiz,
Rogues through every crowd are gliding:
Zounds, how queer a world it is!
Marrying, some in marriage giving,
Other like the world of old,
All but me are feasting, living
Would that wives were to be sold !
Others have their dears in plenty,
And their bosoms heave with love,
I've bad chance, nineteen, twenty—
But I dare not one improve.
Brokers shaving, Sheriff dunning,
Politicians pull your sleeve,
Printer scolding, wits are punning,
Jail-birds begging for reprieve,
Preachers warring, bible ranting,
Bacchus, too, hath devotees,
Yonder wretch your wife's gallanting,
I beg duced fool is he!
Lawyer spouling, clients ti-t'ning,
Doctors prating of their skill,
Patients groaning, school-boys whistling:
Striving all old time to kill,
—Pedagogues of science telling,
Milliners of pretty things—
Lovers stroll with bosoms swelling,
List'ning while the night-bird sings.
Clouds are lowering, tempest, howling,
Friends suspecting, foes are glad,
Children screaming, mi-trtsee scowling,
Merry boarders now are sad,
Presto! they are gone forever,
All as gay as it has been,
Sunbeams shine, the girls—oh, never
What a curious world we're in!

mIsrki.LayY.