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The Calf-Path

But still they followed-do not laugh-
The first migrations of that calf,

And through this winding wood-way stalked,
Because he wobbled when he walked.

This forest path became a lane,

That bent, and turned, and turned again;
This crooked lane became a road,
Where many a poor horse with his load
Toiled on beneath the burning sun,
And traveled some three miles in one.
And thus a century and a half
They trod the footsteps of that calf.

The years passed on in swiftness fleet,'
The road became a village street;
And this, before men were aware,
A city's crowded thoroughfare;
And soon the central street was this
Of a renowned metropolis;
And men two centuries and a half
Trod in the footsteps of that calf.

Each day a hundred thousand rout
Followed the zigzag calf about;
And o'er his crooked journey went
The traffic of a continent.

A hundred thousand men were led
By one calf near three centuries dead.
They followed still his crooked way,
And lost one hundred years a day;
For thus such reverence is lent
To well-established precedent.

A moral lesson this might teach,
Were I ordained and called to preach;
For men are prone to go it blind
Along the calf-paths of the mind,
And work away from sun to sun
To do what other men have done.

1897

They follow in the beaten track,
And out and in, and forth and back,
And still their devious course pursue,
To keep the path that others do.

But how the wise old wood-gods laugh,
Who saw the first primeval calf!

Ah! many things this tale might teach,-
But I am not ordained to preach.

Sam Waller Foss [1858-1911]

WEDDED BLISS

"O COME and be my mate!" said the Eagle to the Hen;

"I love to soar, but then

I want my mate to rest
Forever in the nest!"

Said the Hen, "I cannot fly,

I have no wish to try,

But I joy to see my mate careering through the sky!"
They wed, and cried, "Ah, this is Love, my own!"
And the Hen sat, and the Eagle soared, alone.

"O come and be my mate!" said the Lion to the Sheep; "My love for you is deep!

I slay, a Lion should,--
But you are mild and good!"

Said the Sheep, “I do no ill—

Could not, had I the will

But I joy to see my mate pursue, devour and kill."
They wed, and cried, "Ah, this is Love, my own!"

And the Sheep browsed, the Lion prowled, alone.

"O come and be my mate!" said the Salmon to the Clam; "You are not wise, but I am.

I know the sea and stream as well;
You know nothing but your shell."
Said the Clam, "I'm slow of motion,

But my love is all devotion,

And I joy to have my mate traverse lake and stream and

ocean!"

Ad Chloen, M. A.

1899

They wed, and cried, "Ah, this is Love, my own!"
And the Clam sucked, the Salmon swam, alone.
Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman [1860-

THE HINDOO'S DEATH

A HINDOO died; a happy thing to do,
When fifty years united to a shrew.
Released, he hopefully for entrance cries
Before the gates of Brahma's paradise.
"Hast been through purgatory?" Brahma said.
"I have been married!" and he hung his head.
"Come in! come in! and welcome to my son!
Marriage and purgatory are as one."

In bliss extreme he entered heaven's door,
And knew the bliss he ne'er had known before.

He scarce had entered in the gardens fair,
Another Hindoo asked admission there.
The self-same question Brahma asked again:
"Hast been through purgatory?" "No; what then?"
"Thou canst not enter!" did the god reply.
"He who went in was there no more than I."
"All that is true, but he has married been,

And so on earth has suffered for all his sin."

"Married? Tis well, for I've been married twice." "Begone! We'll have no fools in paradise!"

George Birdseye [18

AD CHLOEN, M. A.

(FRESH FROM HER CAMBRIDGE EXAMINATION)

LADY, very fair are you,
And your eyes are very blue,

And your hose;

And your brow is like the snow,

And the various things you know

Goodness knows.

And the rose-flush on your cheek,
And your algebra and Greek
Perfect are;

And that loving lustrous eye

Recognizes in the sky.
Every star.

You have pouting piquant lips,
You can doubtless an eclipse
Calculate;

But for your cerulean hue,
I had certainly from you
Met my fate.

If by an arrangement dual

I were Adams mixed with Whewell,
Then some day

I, as wooer, perhaps might come

To so sweet an Artium

Magistra.

Mortimer Collins [1827-1874)

"AS LIKE THE WOMAN AS YOU CAN"

"As like the Woman as you can

(Thus the New Adam was beguiled) — "So shall you touch the Perfect Man"

(God in the Garden heard and smiled). "Your father perished with his day:

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A clot of passions.fierce and blind,
He fought, he hacked, he crushed his way:
Your muscles, Child, must be of mind.

"The Brute that lurks and irks within,
How, till you have him gagged and bound,
Escape the foulest form of Sin?"

(God in the Garden laughed and frowned).
"So vile, so rank, the bestial mood
In which the race is bid to be,
It wrecks the Rarer Womanhood:
Live, therefore, you, for Purity!

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"Take for your mate no gallant croup,
No girl all grace and natural will:
To work her mission were to stoop,
Maybe to lapse, from Well to Ill.
Choose one of whom your grosser make❞—
(God in the Garden laughed outright)—
"The true refining touch may take,
Till both attain to Life's last height.

"There, equal, purged of soul and sense,
Beneficent, high-thinking, just,
Beyond the appeal of Violence,
Incapable of common Lust,
In mental Marriage still prevail"-
(God in the Garden hid His face)—
"Till you achieve that Female-Male
In which shall culminate the race."

William Ernest Henley [1849-1903]

"NO FAULT IN WOMEN"

No fault in women to refuse

The offer which they most would choose:'
No fault in women to confess

How tedious they are in their dress:
No fault in women to lay on
The tincture of vermilion,

And there to give the cheek a dye
Of white, where Nature doth deny:
No fault in women to make show
Of largeness, when they've nothing so;
When, true it is, the outside swells
With inward buckram, little else:
No fault in woman, though they be
But seldom from suspicion free:
No fault in womankind at all,
If they but slip, and never fall.

Robert Herrick [1591-1674]

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