GONE WITH A HANDSOMER MAN.

The letter it says, "Good-bye, for I'm a going And then she'll see things clear, and know

JOHN (aside).

Why, John, what a litter here! you've thrown Well, now, if this ain't a joke, with rather a

things all around!

Come, what's the matter now? and what have you lost or found?

bitter cream!

It seems as if I'd woke from a mighty ticklish dream;

And here's my father here, a waiting for sup- And I think she "smells a rat," for she smiles per, too;

I've been a riding with him-he's that "handsomer man than you."

at me so queer,

I hope she don't; good gracious! I hope that they didn't hear!

Ha ha! Pa, take a seat, while I put the 'Twas one of her practical drives-she thought
kettle on,
I'd understand!
And get things ready for tea, and kiss my But I'll never break sod again till I get the

dear old John.

Why, John, you look so strange! come, what

has crossed your track?

lay of the land.

But one thing's settled with me-to appreciate heaven well,

I was only a joking, you know; I'm willing 'Tis good for a man to have some fifteen mito take it back.

nutes of hell.

DEDICATION OF GETTYSBURG CEMETERY.

PRESIDENT LINCOLN.

OURSCORE and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon. this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We are met to dedicate a por

tion of it as the final resting-place of those who here gave their lives that

that nation might live.

It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to the cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that the government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

DE PINT WID OLD PETE.

143

And I sit and think when the sunset's gold
Is flashing on river, and hill, and shore,
I shall one day stand by the waters cold

And list to the sound of the boatman's oar.
I shall watch for a gleam of the flapping sail;
I shall hear the boat as it gains the strand.

I shall pass from sight with the boatman pale
To the better shore of the spirit-land.

I shall know the loved who have gone before,
And joyfully sweet will the meeting be,
When over the river, the peaceful river,
The angel of death shall carry me.

DE PINT WID OLD PETE.

PON the hurricane deck of one of our gunboats, an elderly darkey,
with a very philosophical and retrospective cast of countenance,
squatted on his bundle, toast-

ing his shins against the chim-
ney and apparently plunged into a
state of profound meditation. Finding
upon inquiry, that he belonged to the
Ninth Illinois, one of the most gallantly
behaved and heavy losing regiments at
the Fort Donaldson battle, I began to
interrogate him upon the subject.
"Were you in the fight?"
"Had a little taste of it, sa."

"Stood your ground, did you?" "No, sa, I runs."

"Run at the first fire, did you?"

"Yes, sa, and would hab run soona,

had I know'd it war comin'."

TOASTING HIS SHINS.

"Why, that wasn't very creditable to your courage."

"Massa, dat isn't my line, sa; cookin's my profeshun." "Well, but have you no regard for your re

"But why should you act upon a different rule from other men?" "Because different men set different values upon their lives; mine is not in de market."

"But if you lost it, you would have the satisfaction of knowing that you died for your country."

"What satisfaction would dat be to me when de power ob feelin' was gone?"

"Then patriotism and honor are nothing to you?"

"Nuffin whatever, sa; I regard them as among the vanities."

"If our soldiers were like you, traitors might have broken up the government without resistance."

Yes, sa; dar would hab been no help for it."

"Do you think any of your company would have missed you if you had been killed?"

Maybe not, sa; a dead white man ain't much to dese sogers, let alone a dead nigga; but I'd miss myself, and dat was de pint wid me.”

Thou'rt with me through the gloomy night; I sat and watch'd thy sad decay:

In dreams I meet thee as of old;
Then thy soft arms my neck enfold
And thy sweet voice is in my ear:
In every scene to memory dear,
I see thee still.

Here, on this bed, thou last didst lie;
Here, on this pillow,-thou didst die.
Dark hour! once more its woes unfold:
As then I saw thee, pale and cold,
I see thee still.