The song was rather monotonous. You can get a very good idea of how the fiftieth verse sounded by singing the first verse twenty-five or thirty times.

“Bark away!” said the Laziest Beaver. “You’re wasting time.”

The Yellow Dog cleared his throat, which Buddie thought must be getting tired, and resumed:

“We know why it’s lucky to tumble uphill,

And why it’s bad luck to fall down;

Why a cold and wet May means a barnful of hay,

And why a brown study is brown;

“Why one should plant corn in the old of the moon,

Why there’s luck in odd numbers of crows;—

‘But why, tell us why,’ is our sing-songy cry,