Good King Grin.
THE JESTER.
There is a King in Nonsense Land
Whose castle, neither tall nor grand,
Is gaily perched upon a hill
Behind the town of Jolliville.
A spangled jester lets you in—
Whoever calls on good King Grin.
“QUITE BALD.”
His height in feet is only four;
Around his waist is one foot more;
His mouth is wide; his eyes are twinkles
Half hidden in a net of wrinkles;
His beard is red; his hair is thin—
In fact, quite bald is good King Grin.
PRINCESS GIGGLE.
His family—beneath the sun
You never saw a happier one:
The good Queen Smile, so fair to see;
Prince Laugh, the heir-apparent he;
And Princess Giggle’s baby din—
Is life and joy to good King Grin.
Three ministers of state has he:
Prime Minister is Pleasantry;
In Foreign Matters, great and small,
Good-Nature ministers to all;
And Cheerfulness, when bills come in,
Is Treasurer to good King Grin.
His courser is a palfry stout,
And when the good king rides about,
The very babies crow for joy:
From peasant-man and peasant-boy,
From landed knight and all his kin,
Arise one cry: “Long live King Grin.”
Ralph Bergengren.
A Funny Twin Brother
Last sum-mer when we were in the coun-try hav-ing a hap-py ho-li-day, we of-ten went in-to the hay-field, and you lit-tle ones may fan-cy the fun we had. John-ny and Lil-ly rolled in the sweet fresh hay, and were bu-ried and came up a-gain ma-ny and ma-ny a time; and just when we thought there was not a bit of chub-by child to be seen, a round red laugh-ing face would peep out, fol-lowed by a sort of wind-mill of arms and legs.
It was on a bright sum-mer’s day in that hay-field that we met Tim and his lit-tle mis-tress. “Who was Tim?” you say. Well, Tim was a don-key, and such a hap-py pet-ted don-key has sel-dom been seen be-fore. Liz-zy—the lit-tle girl you see in the pic-ture—was the far-mer’s daugh-ter, and as she led Tim round her fa-ther’s field, she picked up the sweet hay and fed him with it.
When Tim and lit-tle Liz-zy came near us, we all went up to pat the don-key: then the lit-tle girl told us how good and gen-tle her Tim was. “We are very luc-ky to have such a good don-key,” said she.
“And I think he is luc-ky to have such a good lit-tle mis-tress,” said I.
“Oh, but he be-longs to us all,” an-swered the child, “and there are six of us; we all feed and pet him. My father bought him when he was quite lit-tle. He is five years old now; just the same age as my lit-tle bro-ther Willy. So he is his Twin Bro-ther you see,” ad-ded Liz-zy grave-ly.
