ORIGINAL POETRY.

Tuapeka Times, Volume I, Issue 38, 31 October 1868, Page 6

ORIGINAL POETRY.

(To tlie Editor ofiha Tuapeha Times.) •».» — — . SlK.— TifeVno'oseii poem is the composition of an operative union, a native of the County of Galloway; S^dtlauil, but who has been some years dead. It is a great favorite of mine ; Jiad I thiuk it -would" be an injustice to the memory of the author to allow the waters of oblivion to flow over it. Its simplicity and heart-felt truthf illness would have done • honor to the great Caledonian Bivrd himself ; and I take the liberty /)f sending it to you, that it may adorn , the poet's comer of • the~" Tuapeka Times."— l am, Sir, yours, &c.,- ~ CiuiaiELEE.

My mither was -wae»foj.- luy faithor was dead ; And they thi-eaWd to tak' our auld houso o'er our head. * ' ' "• Her earnings grewscanty, the meal liad go* dear;And the eMe?t o-' fiye^-I ! could whiles see a* tear When sbe cam' haine at nicht, glistening biioht in her ecn — " ... Half hid, as if it didna just like to be seen. I spake ua a word, but my wee heart would ache; And I wished I was big for my puir inither's sake. - • There were farmer's* voun' -wanted, herds for their kye, - And ,i»y mither had said she had one^ that w.as try. I mind" how I Jrembleil, half fear and half joy, * "When if farmer ea'd in just to look at the boy ; He 'hade me stand ut|», and he thocht I wss wee, But my frank honest face, he said, pleased his cc ; He wa'd*tak\an'd try me, ac half year and see, For a pair o' new shooa, and a five shilling fee. We were proud to hear tell o't ; a bargain was struck, And be left me a sixpence o' earls for luck. •Sly jacket avnd trousers were patched for the day, And my mither couvoytd me a long mile away, "Wi' threat'nings and warnings 'gainst a' kinds o' crime ; And rules she laid doune, I thocht hard at the time : If the kye should gae wrang, I was never to lee, Tho' they sent me awa' but my shoon and my fee. Sac I fejl to my wark, and I pleased richt weel : But a word or a waive, and I plied hand and heel ; But my. troubles cam' on, for the fences were bad, And the midsummer flee made the cattle run - mad. In cauld blashey weather, sair drenched in the rain, "Whyles wee thochts o' leaving wad steal thro' my brain ; . But wi' courage I dashed aye the tear f rae my cc, When I thocht on my shoon and my five-shilling fee. And Martinmas brocht memy long-look'd-for store, And proudly I counted it twenty. timeß o'er ; Aud years since hae fled in fortunate train," But I never enjoyed sic raptures again : The sailor just safe thro' the wild breakers

steer'd — r _ . Proud W aterloo's Victor, when Blucher appeared, Ne'er felt what I felt as I placed" on the knee - O' a fond-hsarted mother my five shilling fee. Robeet Kerb (deceased).

What is harder than .earning money 1 — Collecting it. The swell of the ocean is said to be a j dandy midshipman. A French writer calls dyspepsia the remorse of a guilty stomach. A Sweet Thought,— The word "sugar" is like the machinery by which it is made; it expresses the juice of the cane. A New Interpretation. — " What are the wild waves raying?" that the National Lifeboat Institution has offices at 14 John--b reet, Adelphi, where Mr. Lewis will be happy to receive subscriptions." An~lrisTiman who had returned' from Italy,' where he had been with his master, was asked, in the kitchen, "Yea, then, Pat, what is the lava I hear the master talking about ?" — "Only a drop of tlxe crater-,'-' was Pat's reply. A Young gentleman, visiting his mistress, met a rival who was' somewhat advanced in years, and wishiug to rally him inquired how" old he was. "J: can't exactly tell," replied the Qther, "but I can inform yon that an ass is older at twenty than a man at sixty." A' Cool Hand, — An old Scotchman whom Collins, the painter, _„ was once engaged sketching at H^ndon, exhibited great self-possession. Findingfrom certain indications' that body and garments of this English Edie Ochil'-ree afforded a sort of pasture ground to a herd of many animals of minute .size, lie hinted liis feara to the ojd man that he might leave some of his small body-guard behind him. '•' No fear, sir ; no fear," replied this deaf and veuerabje vagrant, contemplating the Jean artist with serenity. 4 ' I don't think ihere are many of them likely to leave me fur you."

Tall Stories. — A Yankee having told an Englishman that he shot, on one particular occasion, 999 snipe, his interlocutor asked why he .didn't make ifc a thousand at once. " No," said he, " not likely I'm going to tell a lie for one snipe." Whereupon the Englishman, determined not to be outdone, began to tell a long story of a man having swam from- Liverpool to Boston. " Did you see him?" asked tho Yankee, suddenly ; " die! you see him yourself ?"■ fi Why, ye 3, of course t did ; I was coming across, and our ve33el .passed him a mile out of Bostoja harbour." " Well I'm glad you saw him, stranger, 'cos yer a witness that I did it. That was me !" American Marriages. — An impatient couple in Chesterfield county, Va., were married in. a buggy nqt long »^o. ' The ainaucad bride made a- journey to Rich.riond to select the wedding trousseau. She \?a3 met by her lover with a top buggy to carry her h^roe. On the road they mat the pastor of their church, and as ±ha license had already "been obtained the impatient ...bridegroom insisted upon the cejeenjony being performed at onee — the preacher- on horseback and they in the carriage— with a farmer'an'd his wife who happened tabs present a? witnesses. The Western papers state that a young couple rode into OttervUle, $lo.," a tow day 3 since, in pursuit of a parson to marry them. Learning that he wasT&t a store ■lajtJw pubjic square, they rode up in front nf "the stole; and calling him out told hW their errand, and. ho; - without requiring them todi?pj<Jant,in»r^ed r^h.en>.,a^ they! b it, to the great #m use went; of a crowd t& S^ctator* who h#J gathered t/> w&ness