File:Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries- Volume 11, page 204, December 1859.jpg

Transcription:

Ere he [Thomas Nast]’d burlesqued our phizzes or pictured our travels,

Ere he’d sang like Amodio or rivaled the Ravels;

Ere Fanny [Fern]† had taken among us her place

Ere Nellie [Eldredge] we’d seen or we’d e’er had a Grace [Eldredge];

Ere with Williston’s help we’d corrected our time‡,

Ere his kind-hearted partner taught him in their prime.

Young men the fair maidens should choose whom they’d marry, §

And how they would rue it if single they’d tarry

Ere Miss Bonestel we knew, Miss Behm or Miss [Josie] Brown, þ

Three B’s we may call them — nay ladies, don’t frown;

—————

x Nast illustrated [Edward] Welles’ poem about our fourth of July pic-nic. His singing don’t amount to much.

† Lines inserted subsequent to the rest, that she and party mightn’t feel as if invidiously omitted.

‡ I think he is a clockmaker.

§ A topic on which she is generally eloquent, says [Jesse] Haney.

þ A very pretty girl, a school-friend of Eliza [Edwards]’s. As they sat beside each other on the sofa during the reading this poem, I thought theirs were the most intelligent girls’ faces in the party.