Child Songs of Cheer | Page 2

the big
bass drum
And blaring bugles,--there they are,
On golden thrones in
a golden car,
Tooting and fluting, oh, how grand!
Hi diddle, diddle!
The fife and the fiddle!
_Hurrah, hurrah_ for the circus band!
And the red-plumed horses, oh, see them prance
And daintily lift
their hoofs and dance,
While beautiful ladies with golden curls
Are
jingling their bridles of gold and pearls,
And close behind
Come every kind
Of animal cages great and small,
O how I wonder what's in them all!
Here's one that's open and glaring there
Is the shaggiest snow-white
polar bear!
_Woof!_ but I wonder what we'd do
If his bars broke
loose right now, don't you?
And O dear me!
Just look and see
That pink-cheeked lady in skirts of gauze
And the great big lion with
folded paws!
O me! O my!
I'm glad that I
Am not in that lion's cage, because
_Suppose he'd open his horrible
jaws!_
--But look! the clown is coming! Of course
Facing the tail of

a spotted horse
And shouting out things to make folks laugh,
And
grinning up at the tall giraffe
That placidly paces along and looks

Just like giraffes in the picture-books!
And there are the elephants, two and two,
Lumbering on as they
always do!
The men who lead them look so small
I wonder the
elephants mind at all
As they wag their queer
Long trunks, and peer
Through their beady eyes,--folks say they know
No end of things, and
I'm sure it's so!
And you never must do a thing that's bad
Or that
possibly might make an elephant mad,
For he'll never forgive you, it
appears,
And will punish you sure, if it takes him _years!_
So do not stare
But take good care
To mind your manners, and always try
To smile politely as they go
by!
But the camels don't care if you laugh at them
With their bumpy
humps like a capital M,
They lurch and sway
And seem to say,
As they wrinkle their noses, long and gray,
"This swaggering stride is
quite the plan,
It's the way we walked in the caravan!"
And now more cages come rumbling by
With glittering people
throned on high;
So many spangles and precious things,
They
surely must all be queens and kings!
They look so proud
Above the crowd,
O my, how fine it must feel to ride
On golden wagons that hide inside

Strange animals caught in cannibal isles
And brought in ships for a
million miles!

But hark! it's near
The end, for hear
That sudden screeching in piercing key!
The steaming, screaming
_cal-li-o-pe_!
Just plain pianos sound terribly tame
Beside this one
with the wonderful name,
And wouldn't you love some day to sit
In
a circus wagon and play on it?
MAY-BASKETS
Let us take our baskets early
To the meadows green,
While the
wild-flowers still are pearly
With the dewdrops' sheen.
Fill them full of blossoms rosy,
Violets and gay
Cowslips, every
pretty posy
Welcoming the May.
Then our lovely loads we'll carry
Down the village street,
On each
door, with laughter merry,
Hang a basket sweet.
Hey-a-day-day! It