Child Songs of Cheer | Page 2

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 is spring now,?Lazy folks, awake!?See the pretty things we bring now?For the May-day's sake!
THE PICTURE-BOOK GIANT
Once there was a fierce, defiant,?Greedy, grumpy, grizzly giant?In the pages of a picture-book, and he?Sometimes screamed, in sudden rages,?"I must jump out from these pages,?For this life's a much too humdrum one for me!
Fiddle-dee!?Yes, this life's a quite too quiet one for me!"
So one rainy day he did it,?Took the picture-book and hid it,?Stamped his foot, and shouting loudly,
"Now I'm free!"?Boldly started out, forgetting?That he could not stand a wetting!?He was just a paper giant, don't you see?
Dearie me!?Just a gaudy, picture giant, don't you see?
DID YOU EVER?
Did you ever see a fairy in a rose-leaf coat and cap?Swinging in a cobweb hammock as he napped his noonday nap?
Did you ever see one waken very thirsty and drink up?All the honey-dew that glimmered in a golden buttercup?
Did you ever see one fly away on rainbow-twinkling wings? If you did not, why, how comes it that you never see such things?
DECORATION DAY
See the soldiers, little ones!?Hark the drummers' beat!?See them with their flags and guns?Marching down the street!
Tattered flags from out the wars,?Let us follow these?To the little stripes and stars?Twinkling through the trees.
Watch