The Book of Joyous Children | Page 5

the best of
all?
LITTLE MANDEVILLE
O little friends, I most rejoice
When I hear the drums
As the Circus comes,--
So Summer-time's
my special choice.
QUEEN
Summer or Winter or Spring or Fall,--
Which do you like the best of
all?
LITTLE EDITH
Apples of ruby, and pears of gold,
And grapes of blue
That the bee stings through.--
Fall--it is all that
my heart can hold!

[Illustration: "THE FAIRY QUEEN OF THE SEASONS."]

QUEEN
Soh! my lovelings and pretty dears,
You've each a favorite, it
appears,--
Summer and Winter and Spring and Fall.--
That's the

reason I send them all!

THOMAS THE PRETENDER
Tommy's alluz playin' jokes,
An' actin' up, an' foolin' folks;
An'
wunst one time he creep
In Pa's big chair, he did, one night,
An'
squint an' shut his eyes bofe tight,
An' say, "Now I 'm asleep."
An'
nen we knowed, an' Ma know' too,
He ain't asleep no more 'n you!
[Illustration]
An' wunst he clumbed on our back'fence
An' flop his arms an' nen
commence
To crow, like he's a hen;
But when he failed off, like he
done,
He didn't fool us childern none,
Ner didn't crow again.
An'
our Hired Man, as he come by,
Says, "Tom can't crow_, but he kin
_cry."

[Illustration: "PORE PA! PORE PA!"]

LITTLE DICK AND THE CLOCK
When Dicky was sick
In the night, and the clock,
As he listened,
said "TickAtty
--tick-atty--tock!"
He said that it said,
Every time
it said "Tick,"
It said "Sick," instead,
And he heard it say "Sick!"

And when it said "TickAtty
--tick-atty--tock,"
He said it said
"SickAtty
--sick-atty--sock!"
And he tried to see then,
But the
light was too dim,
Yet he heard it again--
And't was talking to him!
And then it said "SickAtty

--sick-atty--sick
You poor little
DickAtty
--Dick-atty--dock!
Have you got the hickAtties
? Hi!
send for Doc
To hurry up quick
Atty--quick-atty--quock,
And
heat a hot brickAtty
--brick-atty--brock,

[Illustration]
And rikle-ty wrap it
And clickle-ty clap it
Against his cold feetAl

-ty--weep-aty--eepaty--
There he goes, slapitTy

--slippaty--sleepaty!"

FOOL-YOUNGENS
Me an' Bert an' Minnie-Belle
Knows a joke, an' we won't tell!
No,
we don't--'cause we don't know
Why we got to laughin' so;
But we
got to laughin' so,
"We ist kep' a-laughin'.
Wind wuz blowin' in the tree--
An' wuz only ist us three
Playin'
there; an' ever' one
Ketched each other, like we done,
Squintin' up
there at the sun
Like we wuz a-laughin'.
Nothin' funny anyway;
But I laughed, an' so did they--
An' we all
three laughed, an' nen
Squint' our eyes an' laugh' again:
Ner we
didn't ist p'ten'--
We wuz shore-'nough laughin'.

[Illustration: "SQUINT' OUR EYES AN' LAUGH' AGAIN"]

"We ist laugh' an' laugh', tel Bert
Say he can't quit an' it hurt.
Nen I
howl, an' Minnie-Belle
She tear up the grass a spell
An' ist stop her
yeers an' yell
Like she'd die a-laughin'.

Never sich fool-youngens yit!
Nothin' funny,--not a bit!--
But we
laugh' so; tel we whoop'
Purt'-nigh like we have the croup--
All so
hoarse we'd wheeze an' whoop
An' ist choke a-laughin'.

THE KATYDIDS
Sometimes I keep
From going to sleep,
To hear the katydids
"cheep-cheep!"
And think they say
Their prayers that way;
But
katydids_ don't have to _pray!
[Illustration]
I listen when
They cheep again
And so, I think, they're singing then!

But, no; I'm wrong,--
The sound's too long
And all-alike to be a
song!
I think, "Well, there!
I do declare,
If it is neither song nor prayer,

It's talk--and quite
Too vain and light
For me to listen to all night!"
And so, I smile,
And think,--"Now I'll
Not listen for a little
while!"--
Then, sweet and clear,
Next "cheep" I hear
'S a kiss....
Good morning, Mommy dear!
[Illustration]

BILLY AND HIS DRUM
Ho! it's come, kids, come!
"With a bim! bam! bum!
Here's little
Billy bangin' on his big bass drum!
He's a-marchin' round the room,

With his feather-duster plume
A-noddin' an' a-bobbin' with his bim!
bom! boom!

Looky, little Jane an' Jim!
Will you only look at him,
A-humpin' an'
a-thumpin' with his bam! bom! bim!
Has the Day o' Judgment come

Er the New Mi-len-nee-um?
Er is it only Billy with his bim! bam!
bim!

[Illustration: "HE'S A-MARCHIN' ROUND THE ROOM."]

I 'm a-comin'; yes, I am--
Jim an' Sis, an' Jane an' Sam!
We'll all
march off with Billy an' his bom! bim! bam!
Come hurrawin' as you
come,
Er they'll think you're deef-an'-dumb
Ef you don't hear little
Billy an' his big bass drum!

THE NOBLE OLD ELM
O big old tree, so tall an' fine,
Where all us childern swings an' plays,

Though neighbers says you're on the line
Between Pa's house an'
Mr. Gray's,--
Us childern used to almost fuss,
Old Tree, about you
when we 'd play.--
We'd argy you belonged to us,
An' them
Gray-kids the other way!
Till Elsie_, one time _she wuz here
An' playin' wiv us--Don't you
mind,
Old Mister Tree?--an' purty near
She scolded us the hardest
kind
Fer quar'llin' 'bout you thataway,
An' say she'll find--ef we'll
keep still--
Whose tree you air fer shore, she say,
An' settle it fer
good, she will!

[Illustration: "THE OLD TREE SAYS HE'S ALL OUR TREE."]

So all keep still: An' nen she gone
An' pat the Old Tree, an' says

she,--
"Whose air you, Tree?" an' nen let on
Like she's a-list'nin' to
the Tree,--
An' nen she