VIRGINIA

The roses nowhere bloom so white

As in Virginia;
The sunshine nowhere shines so bright

As in Virginia;
The birds sing nowhere quite so sweet,
And nowhere hearts so lightly beat,
For heaven and earth both seem to meet,

Down in Virginia.

There nowhere is a land so fair

As in Virginia;
So full of song, so free from care,

As in Virginia;
And I believe that Happy Land
The Lord prepared for mortal man
Is built exactly on the plan

Of old Virginia.

Selected.

Though the F. F. V.'s are hard to please,

And very hard to find,
Still the F. F. V.'s is a disease

Of many a human mind;
For the F. F. V.'s, the real ones, please,

Are very hard to find;
Yet the F. F. V.'s, those of disease

(And quite a diff'rent kind!),
Are the F. F. V.'s, as thick as peas,

With which Virginia's lined.
Toast the F. F. V.'s, the real ones, please,

The ones so hard to find;
And the F. F. V.'s, as thick as peas,

Roast them within your mind.

Lily Tyler. East Radford, Virginia.

VIRGINIA

My well-beloved Virginia! Oft at my mother's knee

I heard the brave recital of deeds well done for thee:

Of gentle maids and matrons, who graced each cot and hall,

Of steadfast sons and fathers, responsive to thy call.

Dear Presidential Mother! Fame crowns thy stately brow

For Monroe's sturdy doctrine, for Patrick Henry's vow,

For Jefferson and Randolph, for Madison and Lee,

For all thy men of mettle and gallant chivalry.

My well-beloved Virginia! No land so dear to me!

Whose famous son, George Washington, forever made us free;

While rolls the broad Potomac, while York stream seeks the sea,

At morning gun and set of sun, my toast shall always be,

VIRGINIA! FAIR VIRGINIA!

Edward Fairfax Naulty.

OLD VIRGINIA

Whar blooms the furtive 'possum—pride and glory of the

South! And Aunty makes a hoeeake that melts within yo* mouth.

Selected.