SELECT POETRY.

Tuapeka Times, Volume I, Issue 23, 18 July 1868, Page 5

SELECT POETRY.

THE DAYS dFfirODTH, Oh for the days, the joyous day*, The days when I was young;. "When in mine ear Health's blessed voice A heavenly anthem song; When nought of sorrow, nought of strife, Hod marr'd the pageant gay, That swept the golden plains of life • With banners bright as day. I loved a love then sweeter far Than any now I see ; Her brow was like the morning star, Her step was light and free. But she is dead ! about her bed The wild winds careless play } And all in vain I strive to gain. The peace that's pass'daway. Last eve I watch'd two lovers pace. A garden's smiling greeen : While he look'd ou her tender face, She on his breast did lean. She w&s a bride ! I gazed and sigh'd, And oh ! my eyes grew dim ; And through my tears, a-down the years, I saw—what might have been i Soft are the shadows, in the wood — Sweet are its blossoms fair! I love the fields—the dew that yields Its freshness to the air. But 'mid them all there ia a voice That I alone can hear : In sorrow's tones it sighs, it moans, Of blossoms dead and sere.

Long Odds. —Tall husband and short wife. —'•'- Punch. Query. —ls " stealing a march " worse than <• taking a walk P" A Dangerous Character. —A man who " takes life " cheerfully. A New Orleans gentleman calk the negro a v remnant of the dark ages." Puzzling Epftaph on a Successful BaceHorse.— Often flogged, but never beaten.— Punch. " Why do you always travel third-class ? " nsTicd a gentleman of a miser. "Because there'j no fourth," was the unexpected but satisfactory reply. An American editor writing of a contemporarr, snys : " flis intellect 13 so dense that it would take the auger of common sens? longer to bore into it than it wo.uld to bore into Mount Blanc with a boiled carrot." One day Joseph Kekyll, visiting G-eorge Column, observed a squirrel in his round cage performing the customary operation, of turning it like a man in a treadmill. "Ah ! poor beg.exclaimed he y" he's going the Home !" An orator in the 3rish House of Commons ■was describing the inordinate love of j)raise which characterised an opponent. "The honourable membor," said he, " is so found of being praised, that I really h&Ueve he would be content to give up the ghost, if it were but to lookup and read the stone-cutter'a puff on his grave." Lord Chesterfield pueday, at a tayern where he dined, complained that the plates and dishes were very ;|{S|fcY,. Tup waiter, with a degree of pertnesjijj|pserved, " It is mid every one ninst eat a pecsfeTdirt before lie dies." — " r J?hat may b& true,^. said Lord Chesterfield, " but no one is obliged to eat all of ifc at one meal, you dirty dog."- " Massa, v -Baid the black steward to his captain, as they fell fn with a homeward bound vessel, " I wi3h yon would write a few lines to deole woman, 'cause I can't write." The good-natured B«ipper complied, and wrote all that Pompey dictated. As the captain was ai.out to seal up the letter, Pompey mninded him that he had omitted to say, '•' Please "»euse de b( ad writin' and spellin'." A Severe Infliction. -Mi 1. Nicholls relates that be happened to be with Johnson, in Bolt Court, on the day that rjenderson, the celebrated actor, was introduced to him. The conversation turning cm dramatic subjects.Henderson asked the doctor's, opinion of "-Dido," and of Joseph Reed, its author. " Sir," said Johnson, " I never did the man an injury, yet he would read his tragedy to me!" Many a blunder is made by reporters which cause those whose words are misrepresented to ghash toir teeth, with agony. "Partner in the works" becom.e3 " pauper in the workhouse."—" Attenders at clubs at the Wist End," mentioned in a speech of Air. Bright's, appear* the next morning as " venders of gloves." —" Wha< do the Italians want ? " cried one impassioned orator; " They want to be a nation."—" What do the Italians want?' sud the reporter next moruing ; " They want to be in Asia." The Mystery. —Two cbikies had bought a mess *»f pork in partnership, but Sam having no place to put his portion in, consented to intrust the whole to Julius's keeping. The next moruing they met, when Sam said, "G-ood raornin', Julius; anything happen strange or mysterious, down in your wicinity, lat'ley?' « Yaas, Sam, most strange tiling happen at ivy house yesterlas l; night. AH mystery to me."—"Ah Julius, what was dat? "—" Well. Sam.ltoleyou now. D;s morning I went down in de cellar for to get a piece ob hog for disdariey's breakfast, and I put my hand down into do brine an' felt round, but no pork dere-all gone—couldn't tell what bewont with it; sol turned up the barl' an', Sam, true as preachin', de rats eat a bole "elar out froo de bottom ob de barl*, and dragged d© pork all out." ' Sam wao petrified with astonishment, but presently said, ".-Why didn't de brine run, ?mt ob de same hob ? " -" Ah, Sam, flat's de ysystery- dat'js da mystery I "