FOR MARK TWAIN'S JUBILEE

To brave Mark Twain, across the sea, The years have brought his jubilee; One hears it half with pain, That fifty years have passed and gone Since danced the merry star that shone Above the babe, Mark Twain!

How many and many a weary day, When sad enough were we, 'Mark's way' (Unlike the Laureate's Mark's) Has made us laugh until we cried, And, sinking back exhausted, sighed, Like Gargery, Wot larx!

We turn his pages, and we see The Mississippi flowing free; We turn again, and grin O'er all Tom Sawyer did and planned, With him of the Ensanguined Hand, With Huckleberry Finn!

Spirit of mirth, whose chime of bells Shakes on his cap, and sweetly swells Across the Atlantic main, Grant that Mark's laughter never die, That men, through many a century, May chuckle o'er Mark Twain!