<h2><SPAN name="page148"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>TO MARRY OR NOT TO MARRY?<br/> <span class="smcap">A Girl’s Reverie</span></h2>
<p class="poetry">Mother says, “Be in no hurry,<br/>
Marriage oft means care and worry.”</p>
<p class="poetry">Auntie says, with manner grave,<br/>
“Wife is synonym for slave.”</p>
<p class="poetry">Father asks, in tones commanding,<br/>
“How does Bradstreet rate his standing?”</p>
<p class="poetry">Sister crooning to her twins,<br/>
Sighs, “With marriage care begins.”</p>
<p class="poetry">Grandma, near life’s closing days,<br/>
Murmurs, “Sweet are girlhood’s ways.”</p>
<p class="poetry">Maud, twice widowed (“sod and
grass”)<br/>
Looks at me and moans “Alas!”</p>
<p class="poetry">They are six, and I am one,<br/>
Life for me has just begun.</p>
<p class="poetry"><SPAN name="page149"></SPAN><span class="pagenum">p.
149</span>They are older, calmer, wiser:<br/>
Age should aye be youth’s adviser.</p>
<p class="poetry">They must know—and yet, dear me,<br/>
When in Harry’s eyes I see</p>
<p class="poetry">All the world of love there burning—<br/>
On my six advisers turning,</p>
<p class="poetry">I make answer, “Oh, but Harry<br/>
Is not like most men who marry.</p>
<p class="poetry">“Fate has offered me a prize,<br/>
Life with love means Paradise.</p>
<p class="poetry">“Life without it is not worth<br/>
All the foolish joys of earth.”</p>
<p class="poetry">So, in spite of all they say,<br/>
I shall name the wedding day.</p>
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