AND 



THE GOOD TIME COMING. 



BY CHARLES H. SWEETSER, OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 



Miss Flora McFlimsby of Madison Square, 

 You doubtless remember had ' nothing to wear; ' 

 And another gay bird of the grand Bellevue, 

 We are told in an epic, had ' nothing to do ; r 

 But a miserable poet is worse off indeed, 

 Whom fortune has left with ' nothing to readJ* 



For two weary weeks I courted the Nine, 



To tickle your ears with something divine ; 



Used up two dozen of quills I should guess, 



With a gallon of ink — perhaps it was less, 



Not to mention those thoughts and graceful allusions 



Which always adorn post-prandial effusions ; 



But after all this lavish expense 



Of paper and ink, of fancy and sense, 



My labors are useless — my manuscript's gone — 



My poem is lost when only new-born I 



Then ladies and gents, please pardon my muse, 



If she doesn't come clad in the lightest of shoes, 



For I've scarcely a thought what next I shall say, 



But where there's a will there's always a way. 



So, without any harness on Pegasus' back, 

 I purpose to give him a venturous whack, 

 And really and truly desire you may find 

 That absence of paper isn't absence of mind ! 



* Referring to the author's losing his mss. on the evening preceding the Fair, which left him in 

 the predicament above described. 



