London Lyrics — The Pilgrims of Pall Mall

My little Friend, so small and neat, Whom years ago I used to meet In Pall Mall daily;

How cheerily you tripp'd away To work, it might have been to play, You tripp'd so gaily.

And Time trips too.

--This moral means, You then were midway in the teens That I was crowning: We never spoke, but when I smil'd At morn or eve, I know, dear child, You were not frowning.

Each morning when we met, I think, Some sentiment did us two link-- Nor joy, nor sorrow: And then at eve, experience-taught, Our hearts fell back upon the thought,-- _We meet to-morrow_!

And you were poor; and how?

and why?

How kind to come!

it was for my Especial grace meant!

Had you a parlour next the stars, A bird, some treasur'd plants in jars, About your casement?

You must have dwelt _au cinquieme_, Like little darling What's-her-name,-- Eugene Sue's glory: Perchance, unwittingly, I've heard Your thrilling-toned Canary-bird From that fifth storey.

I've seen some changes since we met;

A patient little seamstress yet, With small means striving, Have you a Lilliputian spouse?

And do you dwell in some doll's house?

--Is baby thriving?

Can bloom like thine--my heart grows chill-- Have sought that bourne unwelcome still To bosom smarting?

The most forlorn--what worms we are!

-- Would wish to finish this cigar Before departing.

I sometimes to Pall Mall repair, And see the damsels passing there;

But though I try to Obtain one glance, they look discreet, As though they'd someone else to meet,-- As have not _I_ too?

Yet still I often muse upon Our many meetings--come and gone!

July--December!

Now let us make a tryste, and when, Dear little soul, we meet again, In some serener sphere, why then-- Thy Friend remember!

THE RUSSET PITCHER