“ONCE ON A TIME.”
If you had lived “once on a time,”
Just as the story books all say,
Oh wouldn’t it have been a sight
To see the knights with dragons fight
And bear their heads away.
And it was “once upon a time,”
That little boys came to be kings;
That fairies flitted here and there
To little girls with presents rare—
Rich gowns and diamond rings.
But now, dear me, how things are changed:
And yet, perhaps, ’tis just as well:
For, if ’twere not so long ago,
That all these wondrous things were so,
There’d be no tales to tell.
To Mr. Fox’s barber shop,
The large important Mr. Bear
Once took his chubby, little son
To have the barber trim his hair.
The cloth was tucked about his neck
When, in the mirror large and tall,
He chanced to see another bear
And cuffed the glass to pieces small.
Perhaps there is a funny land
Where rabbits dress in long tailed coats,
And kittens all wear wooden shoes
And schools are taught by learned goats.
Where crocodiles play violins
And owls are decked in gowns and caps;
But if there is a land like this,
You can not find it on the maps.
A very foolish little clam
Each night sat up till very late;
His parents said repeatedly
That he should not thus dissipate.
But he would never heed their words:
He was too headstrong to obey
And thus he had so little sleep
That he was sleepy all the day.
One summer morning on the beach,
He opened wide his shell to yawn.
A big red bird came walking by—
A snap, a gulp—the clam was gone!
So, children, though you are too large
For any hungry bird to hold,
You see ’tis much the wiser plan
To go to bed when you are told.