| |
| I HAD found out a gift for my fair, | |
| I had found where the cave men were laid: | |
| Skulls, femur and pelvis were there, | |
| And spears that of silex they made. | |
| |
| But he ne’er could be true, she averred, | 5 |
| Who would dig up an ancestor’s grave— | |
| And I loved her the more when I heard | |
| Such foolish regard for the cave. | |
| |
| My shelves they are furnished with stones, | |
| All sorted and labelled with care; | 10 |
| And a splendid collection of bones, | |
| Each one of them ancient and rare; | |
| |
| One would think she might like to retire | |
| To my study—she calls it a “hole”! | |
| Not a fossil I heard her admire | 15 |
| But I begged it, or borrowed, or stole. | |
| |
| But there comes an idealess lad, | |
| With a strut and a stare and a smirk; | |
| And I watch, scientific, though sad, | |
| The Law of Selection at work. | 20 |
| |
| Of Science he had not a trace, | |
| He seeks not the How and the Why, | |
| But he sings with an amateur’s grace, | |
| And he dances much better than I. | |
| |
| And we know the more dandified males | 25 |
| By dance and by song win their wives— | |
| ’Tis a law that with avis prevails, | |
| And ever in Homo survives. | |
| |
| Shall I rage as they whirl in the valse? | |
| Shall I sneer as they carol and coo? | 30 |
| Ah no! for since Chloe is false | |
| I’m certain that Darwin is true. | |
| |
