_The Sea Shell._

'Tis a dainty shell, 'tis a fragile shell At my feet that the wild waves threw, And I send it thee, that its lips may tell In thine ear that my heart is true.

It will tell thee how by the sunlit sea Pass the hours we were wont to share. On its pearl-pink lips is a kiss for thee That my own loving lips placed there.

In a lady's hand it will snugly lie, 'Tis as thin as a red rose-leaf, Yet it holds the seagull's sorrowing cry, And the roar of the tide-lashed reef.

In its ivory cave, though the mighty sea May find room, and to spare, to move, Yet this same sea shell that I send to thee Is too small to contain my love.