"People would laugh if you rode a giraffe,
Or mounted the back of an ox;
It's nobody's habit to ride on a rabbit,
Or try to bestraddle a fox.
But as for a Camel, he's
Ridden by families—
Any load does for me!
"A snake is as round as a hole in the ground,
And weasels are wavy and sleek;
And no alligator could ever be straighter
Than lizards that live in a creek.
But a Camel's all lumpy
And bumpy and humpy—
Any shape does for me!"
Now, Dorothy was a very tender-hearted little child, and by the time these verses were finished she hardly knew whether to laugh or to cry. "Poor old, feeble-minded thing!" she said, compassionately. "And what became of him at last?"
There was a dead silence for a moment, and then the Admiral said solemnly:
"We put him in a pond."
"Why, that's the most unhuman thing I ever heard of in all my life!" exclaimed Dorothy, greatly shocked at this news.
THE CARAVAN DISCIPLINE THE CAMEL.
"Well," said the Admiral, in a shamefaced sort of way, "we thought it was a good thing to do—for us, you know."