ONE MILE TO TOYLAND
"One mile, one mile to Toyland!"
Just s'pose, to your intense
Astonishment, you found this sign
Plain written on a fence.
Just one short mile to Toyland,
To happy girl and boy-land,
Where one can play the livelong day!
Now who will hurry hence?
There dollies grow on bushes,
And wooden soldiers stand
With frisky rocking-horses near,
A brave and dauntless band;
And whips and tops and whistles
They grow as thick as thistles,
And every kind of toy you find—
A strange and magic land!
"Only a mile to Toyland!"
How big your eyes would grow,
And how you'd come and stand stock-still
To read it, in a row;
Then, brother, girls, and maybe
The puppy and the baby,
You'd make that mile in little while,
And find that land, I know!
NANCY BYRD TURNER.
A BATH-TUB JOKE
Clean and sweet from head to feet
Is Jerry, but not his twin.
"Now for the other!" says merry mother,
And quickly dips him in.
Jim and Jerry, with lips of cherry,
And eyes of the selfsame blue;
Twins to a speckle, yes, even a freckle—
What can a mother do?
They wink and wriggle and laugh and giggle—
A joke on mother is nice!
"We played a joke,"—'twas Jimmie who spoke,—
"And you've washed the same boy twice!"