Page:Pieces People Ask For.djvu/174

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56
THE READING-CLUB.

OVER THE LEFT.

Their deposits were left over night in the bank,—
In a bank without whisper of fault:
The amounts to their credit were placed on the books,
And were left over night in the vault.

To their credit, I say it, the bank was locked tight,
Guarding thus against fire and theft;
A patrol on the walk, and a new 'lectric light,
Throwing beams to the right and the left.

Just here the cashier he left over night,
Taking all but the house and the soil;
And the long and the short of the story is this,—
He was too long of stocks—short of oil.

A receiver was called, and he looked o'er the wreck,
And received those who called—thus bereft.
"Have you nothing left over?" they timidly ask:
He answers, "Yes, over the left."

W. C. Dornin.

THE SEMINOLE'S REPLY.

Blaze, with your serried columns!
I will not bend the knee!
The shackles ne'er again shall bind
The arm which now is free.
I've mailed it with the thunder,
When the tempest muttered low;
And where it falls, ye well may dread
The lightning of its blow!

I've scared ye in the city,
I've scalped ye on the plain;
Go, count your chosen, where they fell
Beneath my leaden rain!