too dear at any price—had she but paid
nothing and taken discount, it was dear;
yet, worthless as it was, the sweet-lipped maid
oft kissed the letter in her brief career
between the lower and the upper sphere,
where, seated in a study bistre-brown,
she tried to pierce a mystery as clear
[pg 305]
as that i saw once puzzling a young clown—
“reading made easy,” but turned upside down.
yet ellen, like most misses in the land,
had sipped sky blue, through certain of her teens,
at one of those establishments which stand
in highways, byeways, squares, and village greens;
’twas called “the grove,”—a name that always means
two poplars stand like sentries at the gate—
each window had its close venetian screens
and holland blind, to keep in a cool state
the twenty-four young ladies of miss bate.
but when the screens were left unclosed by chance,
the blinds not down, as if miss b. were dead,
each upper window to a passing glance
revealed a little dimity white bed;
each lower one a cropp’d or curly head;
and thrice a week, for soul’s and health’s economies,
along the road the twenty four were led,
like coupled hounds, whipped in by two she-dominies
with faces rather graver than melpomene’s.
and thus their studies they pursued:—on sunday,
beef, collects, batter, texts from dr. price;
mutton, french, pancakes, grammar—of a monday;
tuesday—hard dumplings, globes, chapone’s advice;
wednesday—fancy-work, rice-milk (no spice);
thursday—pork, dancing, currant-bolsters, reading;
friday—beef, mr. butler, and plain rice;
saturday—scraps, short lessons and short feeding,
stocks, back-boards, hash, steel-collars, and good breeding
from this repertory of female learning,
came ellen once a quarter, always fatter!
[pg 306]
to gratify the eyes of parents yearning.
’twas evident in bolsters, beef, and batter,
hard dumplings, and rice-milk, she did not smatter,
but heartily, as jenkins says, “demollidge;”
but as for any learning, not to flatter,
as often happens when girls leave their college,
she had done nothing but grow out of knowledge.