Volume 104 — ON A NEW YEAR'S CARD.

From Tom! It's thirty years ago Or more, since, destined to talk Tamil, he Set sail for foreign lands. And so To-day he boasts a wife and family.

Yes, Tom and I were chums at school, The Matron—how we used to fool her! We broke the very self-same rule, We felt the very self-same ruler. We gladly in those classic groves Accepted all the Fates provided, And even in our school-boy loves We did not care to be divided. Three years at Cambridge—where we spent Our money, "linked in friendly tether," Three years that all too quickly went, Then we went down, and went together. Next year 'twas Tom who went abroad; He vowed that he'd be married—never! But I was then engaged to Maude, To Maude, who swore to love me ever. Perhaps she kept her plighted word— But, if she did, she chose as funny A way as I have ever heard— She married Some One Else and Money. Maybe she did not feel inclined To risk the bread-and-cheese and kisses, Or else her calculating mind Preferred "Her Ladyship" to "Mrs." So I'm unmarried to this day, And live without the great felicity Which, as Tom used of old to say, Can't fail to wait on domesticity. That joy is his alone, not mine, Misogynist he liked to call himself, Whilst I thought every girl divine— Yet Tom has been the first to fall himself. I've missed the sweets of married life, The bills, the coos, and all the rest of it! I cannot boast, like Tom, a wife, I wonder, tho', who's got the best of it? Fair Maude, I willingly allow I thought my heart for ever riven. It wasn't so at all, and now Your Ladyship is quite forgiven. And Tom, old friend—tried, trusty, true, Across the seas these lines will carry All New-Year greetings, Tom, to you And yours, from Yours, as ever, Harry.