flora’s album. 
Coboea. 
GOSSIPS. 
The tea goes round, — the gossips drink, — and then 
They ’re all excitement, — how their tongues whirl 
round! — 
My feeble, faltering, dilatory pen 
Grows half affrighted ’mid the Babel sound. 
Now changed the subject, — and they freely tell 
Their neighbors’ fiiults, and quite forget their own; 
Pronounce as scamp and yagrant, Mr. Nell, ■ 
And vow as such, he does not stand alone. 
Pure scandal now! and village gossip flows 
In rich profusion from each nimble tongue: 
Each all the secrets of her neighbor knows. 
And wonders when her praises will be sung. 
And then foretells, how that some city youth 
Will waste his midnight oil, to write a sonnet 
About her beauty and her matchless worth, 
With sundry hints about her cottage bonnet; 
And ’bout the weddii^ day, — confound this quill; 
’T is all used up in writing these few ryhmes ; 
No matter, —it has got these gossips still. 
And left its marks amid these twenty lines. 
John S. Adams. 
3 
