El Cigarrito [pp. 264]

Overland Monthly
one tower the banshee sweeps nightly with
her ghostly broom, and wails mournfullyv
before the death of one of the descendants
of the MacDonnells.
From the ruins one's eyes rove from the
long stretch of rocks called "the Skerries" across the sea to Bonny Scotland.
At one's feet the waves lash the still grayer
walls of Dunluce. What tales they could
tell, these voiceless stones!-tales of fierce
warfare, of riotous gaiety, of love, and
of hate, and, alas! through some of its
chieftains, of piracy.
"Lords of the Skerries cruel rocks,
Masters of sea and shore;
Marauders with their clinking mail
Ride from thy gates-no more.
To-day, from all thy ruined walls,
The flowers wave flags of truce.
For Time has proved thy Conqueror,
And tamed thy strength, Dunluce."
So let us hope that the flowers of
Loyalty and Industry shall bloom with renewed vigor on this Emerald Isle of the
Sea; that its great men shall not henceforth give their talent and strength to
alien lands; that they shall not give their
hearts to other than Irish hearts, which,
no matter what the impulsive and sometimes improvident mind directs, always
beat with divine affection for their own.
EL CIGARRITO
T the golden dusk
A ~My MAlanuelita
In her hammock swings;
From the silken husk,
Rolls eigarritos,
Rolls and pats and sings.
Chorus.
Life is but a cigarrito,
A pinch of tobacco-a pouf of breath,
As it grows shorter, we find it sweeter.
"But Love is the Life that outlives Death,"
"Yes, Love is the Life that outlives Death!
In the smoky blue,
Star cigarritos
Shine with beckonings,
Love lives, if Love's true,
And Life's the sweeter
When true Love sings.
Chorus.
Life is but a cigarrito,
A pinch of tobacco-a pouf of breath,
As it grows shorter. we find it sweeter.
"But Love is the Life that outlives Death."
"Yes, Love is the Life that outlives Death!"
Isaac Jenkinson-Frazee.
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