Pieces People Ask For/Together on the Stairs
TOGETHER ON THE STAIRS.
They sat together on the stairs,
Far up where there was shade:
'Twas not because there were no chairs
To sit on, I'm afraid.
Some time they had been sitting there
Alone, while others danced,
And people, coming out for air
'Tween dances, often glanced
Up at them, while they seemed to be
Oblivious of remark,
And sat like two birds in a tree,
Within a shady park.
To eyes that saw them from below,
They looked a loving pair:
The many signs which lovers show
They seemed to show up there.
At least, that is the way, to chaps
Who sauntered in the hall,
Things looked; but then, of course, perhaps,
'Twas nothing after all.
For, though on spooning they seemed bent,
Regardless how time flew,
'Twas possible that "distance lent
Enchantment to the view."
His face bent down until her brow
Seemed touched by his mustache,
While she smiled on him—well, just how
A girl smiles on her mash.
He whispered something low and sweet,
And pointed down to where
Two little blue-silk-slippered feet
Were making people stare.
She blushed, and thrust one farther out,
As if for him to see;
A look of pain o'ercame her pout:
What ever could it be?
"Sure, never did a girl with man
So brazenly coquette
In public," said, behind her fan,
Each other girl you met.
I'll own appearances, indeed,
Were much against the maid;
But, as in many things we heed,
Of harm there was no shade.
How this I know, I'll tell to you:
I chanced to stand quite near
Upon the stairs, behind the two,
And then to overhear.
A long time passed, while neither spoke,
And then at last said he,—
"I'm sick of this: I'm sure you joke;
Your foot's quite well, I see.
"You could, if you but cared to try,
With me come down and dance."
Now, notice how her quick reply
Destroys the scene's romance.
"Perhaps you think my foot's all right;
But, sure as you are born,
I wish you wore my slippers tight,
And had—just there—that corn."
Andrew G. Tubbs.