THE NAUTILUS AND THE AMMONITE by G.F. Richardson, Esq.
        The Nautilus and the Ammonite
        Were launched in Storm and Strife,
        each sent to float in its tiny boat
        On the wide, wide sea of life!
 
        And each could swim on the ocean's brim
        And anon, its sails could furl;
        And sink to sleep in the great sea deep,
        In a palace all of pearl.
 
        And theirs was a bliss more fair than this
        That we feel in our colder Time
        For they were rife in a tropic life
        In a brighter, happier clime.
 
        Thus hand in hand, from strand to strand.
        They sailed in mirth and glee,
        Those fairy shells with their crystal cells,
        Twin creatures of the sea.
 
        But they came at last to a sea long past,
        And as they reached its shore,
        The Almighty's breath spoke out in death,
        And the Ammonite liv'd no more.
 
        And the Nautilus now, in its shelly prow,
        A o'er the deep it strays
        Still seems to seek, in bay and creek,
        Its companion of other days.