TO JOE SWEENEY

APPOMATTOX COUNTY, VA., BEFO'-THE-WAR MAKER AND MASTER OF A FAMOUS MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

ITs ter-rumpity, umpity, umpi-tum tum,
And they say that as music it's all on the bum,
But if anyone hand you

A tune from the banjo

Your soles will go pat to the plunkity strum;
To your head it will fly,

Your toes, too, you'll ply,

As over the boards you go humpity hum.
Without airs that are proud,

It will whoop up the crowd

Make 'em glad they are livin' and kickin', by gum.

EDWIN A. HERNDON.

Lynchburg.

VIRGINIA

To fair Virginia's purple peaks,
Her wave-washed shores and limpid creeks,
We raise on high our glass of cheer
In homage to our State most dear.

Her Sons of past and present fame,
The standard bearers of her name,
Forever in our hearts enshrined,
And in Virginia's honor twined.

But deeper still we drink the toast
To those who are the Southman's boast!
Our mothers true, who gave our lives:

OUR MOTHERS, DAUGHTERS, SWEETHEARTS, WIVES!

LILY TYLER.

East Radford, Virginia.

TO THE OLD BLACK MAMMY

WHEN we came into the mysteries of life she took us in her arms, coddled and cared for our every need, and through years of alternity day and night, with a self-effacement and docile, loyal love the world will never know again, she helped her “little lambs" to grow familiar with the bonds and walls and limitations of a life.

She endured our flashes of temper with the fidelity with which a dog creeps back to lick the master's boot, and so in sun and shade through all the changes of our earthly life, she served and worshipped, swathed us for life, and shrouded for the tomb,

THE FIRST AT THE CRADLE, THE LAST TO LEAVE THE GRAVE. God bless her!

East Radford, Virginia.

LILY PATTON KEARSLEY.