Suddenly, from the flat surface of the plain, not twenty yards beyond the ravine, where nothing but bunch-grass and low shrubbery had been seen before, sprang up sixteen Indians to full height, as startlingly as so many jacks-in-a-box.
[to be continued.]
[A BATTLE ROYAL.]
You ought to have seen the terrible row we had in my room last night,
The elephant plush and the calico cat and my new little pug had a fight,
And though an elephant's great and strong, and a cat has powerful claws,
My little pug-dog came out on top with the aid of his teeth and paws.
The trouble arose in the simplest way; the cat was asleep on a chair.
And the elephant plush was standing about, and sniffing the cool night air,
When Puggy rushed in, as he sometimes does, for a romp on the bed with me,
And tripped on the trunk of the elephant bold, and over and over went he.
He turned two somersaults up in the air, as he tripped on the elephant's trunk,
And then went bang 'gainst the pussy-cat's chair with a really horrible bunk.
He bunked so hard that the chair slid back, with a bang on the side of the door,
And the calico cat, with a hiss and a scat, came tumbling down to the floor.
And it happened as puss came tumbling down old Puggy lay down just below;
He'd tumbled right flat on his poor little back, a picture of trouble and woe—
And the pussy kerflop came down on top of my new little live little pup,
And then came a mighty old struggle in which the cat was just chewed all up.
Pug snapped and he yawled and he rolled and he kicked, but the calico cat held fast;
And they slid o'er the floor in a mad embrace, until, pretty near the last,
They came to the elephant made of plush, with celluloid tusks, so rare,
Who silently stood, as I said before, a-sniffing the cool night air.
And of course when they rolled underneath his legs, the elephant came down too—
And oh, the row, the terrible row, I'm sure would have startled you.
Those three bold friends of my nursery days now got in a terrible plight,
But the small live pug, with his teeth and his paws, soon had much the best of the fight.
And now to-day I am gathering up from all parts of the nursery floor
Small pieces of cotton and calico shreds and samples of plush galore.
There are eyes and ears and tails and trunks from my bed to the wash-stand rug
That tell of the glorious victory that was won by my brave little pug.
As for Puggy himself, he's still romping away, and he hasn't a scar to show;
Nor does he remember, as far as I see, that terrible scene of woe.
And the only effect of his fight at all is he seems to be twice as fat,
Which may come, I cannot with certainty say, from swallowing part of the cat.
Carlyle Smith.
[PUBLIC-SCHOOL BOY AFLOAT.]
BY RICHARD BARRY.
