Page:Poems that every child should know (ed. Burt, 1904).djvu/226

188 "I hastened as soon as the wedding was done,

And left my wife in the porch,

But i' faith she had been wiser than me,

For she took a bottle to church."

.

The Nautilus and the Ammonite.

nautilus and the ammonite

Were launched in friendly strife,

Each sent to float in its tiny boat

On the wide, wide sea of life.

For each could swim on the ocean's brim,

And, when wearied, its sail could furl,

And sink to sleep in the great sea-deep,

In its palace all of pearl.

And theirs was a bliss more fair than this

Which we taste in our colder clime;

For they were rife in a tropic life—

A brighter and better clime.

They swam 'mid isles whose summer smiles

Were dimmed by no alloy;

Whose groves were palm, whose air was balm,

And life one only joy.

They sailed all day through creek and bay,

And traversed the ocean deep;