“Let’s hear you,” responded the black-eyed miss.

“Listen, then,” returned her schoolmate:

“‘A canny young canner of Cannee,
One morning observed to his Granny,
”A canner can can
A lot of things, Gran,
But a canner can’t can a can, can ’e?”’”

87

Now, how is that for a match for your limerick?”

This started the ball a-rolling. Dora Lockwood raised her hand, crying,

“Please, teacher! I have one,” and immediately produced this:

“‘There was a small boy who lived in Jamaica,
Who bought a lobster wrapped in a brown paper;
The paper was thin
And the lobster grabbed him––
What an awful condition that small boy was in!’”

This woke up Dorothy Lockwood, who would not be outdone by her twin. She recited:

“‘In Huron, a hewer, Hugh Hughes,
Hued yew-trees of unusual hues.
Hugh Hughes used blue yews
To build sheds for his ewes;
So his ewes a blue-hued yew shed use.’”