THE HUNGRY PUPIL
To the Jungle kindergarten,
Mrs. Tiger brought her child:
He was small and roly-poly,
He was also meek and mild.
Telling him to mind the teacher,
Not to pull his playmates hair
And learn his lessons quickly.
Then his mother left him there.
When she called for him at noon time,
He was sitting all alone
With a smile of satisfaction,
Gnawing at an ostrich bone.
All the ground was strewn with feathers
Well picked bones and bits of fur;
But the pupils all were missing.
Don’t you wonder where they were?
Her little son came wriggling up
To grave old mother Eel;
“Oh mother dear”, he said with tears
“Such awful pains I feel.
“The doctor says he greatly fears
“For small-pox I am slated;
“But yet I have no arms or legs,
“And can’t be vaccinated.”
The Snapping Turtle’s daughter
In dress displayed good taste;
But, when she tried a belt on,
She found she had no waist.
The jolly Rough Riders of wash day
Sat jauntily out on the line
Not a man was afraid
For ’twas but dress parade
And their showing was certainly fine.
But when from their homes in the tree-tops
The enemy sailed through the air
And with coarse, muddy feet
Soiled each garment and sheet
The Riders could do naught but stare.
A crocodile made up his mind
That he’d be clean and neat;
On land he walked upon his toes,
So’s not to soil his feet;
But, when he came to brush his teeth,
He found to his dismay,
They were so numerous that he
Was busy all the day.
Jane Jenkens liked to look her best—
Though not too proud a girl—
She “did” her hair with strips of tin
To make it kink and curl.
She twisted it too tight by far
And found, to her surprise,
That, though she tried her very best,
She couldn’t close her eyes.