The Bad Child's Book of Beasts

DUCKWORTH, 3 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden
Child! do not throw this book about; Refrain from the unholy pleasure Of cutting all the pictures out! Preserve it as your chiefest treasure. Child, have you never heard it said That you are heir to all the ages? Why, then, your hands were never made To tear these beautiful thick pages! Your little hands were made to take The better things and leave the worse ones. They also may be used to shake The Massive Paws of Elder Persons. And when your prayers complete the day, Darling, your little tiny hands Were also made, I think, to pray For men that lose their fairylands.
Made and Printed in Great Britain by The Camelot Press Limited, London and Southampton
To Master EVELYN BELL Of Oxford Evelyn Bell, I love you well.

I call you bad, my little child, Upon the title page, Because a manner rude and wild Is common at your age. The Moral of this priceless work (If rightly understood) Will make you—from a little Turk— Unnaturally good. Do not as evil children do, Who on the slightest grounds Will imitate
the Kangaroo, With wild unmeaning bounds:

Do not as children badly bred, Who eat like little Hogs, And when they have to go to bed Will whine like Puppy Dogs: Who take their manners from the Ape, Their habits from the Bear, Indulge the loud unseemly jape, And never brush their hair. But so control your actions that Your friends may all repeat.
'This child is dainty as the Cat, And as the Owl discreet.'

As a friend to the children