"How dare you stand and look at me,
You ugly snorting thing?
Know, that of every living beast,
The elephant is king!
"And if a person looks at me,
Unless I give him leave,
He's very apt to meet his death
Too swiftly for reprieve.
"You are the most unpleasant beast
I e'er have looked on yet;
Although the stupid children here
Will make of you a pet.
"I hate your tail of waving hair!
I hate your bits of brass!
But more, oh, more than all, I hate
Your gleaming eyes of glass!
"Were you of cotton-flannel made,
As nursery beasts should be,
With eyes of good black boot-buttons,
You then might look at me.
"I might forgive your want of tusks,
Your lack of trunk forgive;
But that wild, goggling, glassy glare—
No! never, while I live!
"So get you gone, you rocking-horse!
Go to your closet-shed,
And there, behind the wood-basket,
Conceal your ugly head!"
But as the elephant thus did scold
And rage and fume and roar,
The rocking-horse rocked over him,
And crushed him to the floor.
