He weeps by the side of the ocean,
He weeps on the top of the hill;
He purchases pancakes and lotion,

And chocolate shrimps from the mill.

He reads but he cannot speak Spanish,
He cannot abide ginger-beer:
Ere the days of his pilgrimage vanish,
How pleasant to know Mr. Lear!

The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb

ONE day, mamma said: “Conrad dear,

I must go out and leave you here.

But mind now, Conrad, what I say,
Don't suck your thumb while I'm away.
The great tall tailor always comes
To'little boys that suck their thumbs;
And ere they dream what he's about,
He takes his great sharp scissors out
And cuts their thumbs clean off,—and then,
You know, they never grow again."

Mamma had scarcely turned her back,
The thumb was in, alack! alack!
The door flew open, in he ran,
The great, long, red-legged scissor-man.
Oh, children, see! the tailor's come
And caught our little Suck-a-Thumb.
Snip! snap! snip! the scissors go;
And Conrad cries out-" Oh! oh! oh!"

Edward Lear.

Snip! snap! snip!

They go so fast,

That both his thumbs are off at last.

Mamma comes home; there Conrad stands,
And looks quite sad, and shows his hands;-
"Ah!" said mamma, "I knew he'd come
To naughty little Suck-a-Thumb."

Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann (translated).

The Sad Story of a Little Boy that Cried

NCE a little boy, Jack, was, oh! ever so good,

ONCE

Till he took a strange notion to cry all he could.

So he cried all the day, and he cried all the night,
He cried in the morning and in the twilight;

He cried till his voice was as hoarse as a crow,
And his mouth grew so large it looked like a great O.

It grew at the bottom, and grew at the top;

It grew till they thought that it never would stop.

Each day his great mouth grew taller and taller,
And his dear little self grew smaller and smaller.

At last, that same mouth grew so big that--alack !---
It was only a mouth with a border of Jack.*

From "St. Nicholas."

*Two lines omitted.

1

Some little folks makes on The Man in the Moon!

But people that's b'en up to see him, like me,
And calls on him frequent and intimutly,

Might drop a few hints that would interest you
Clean !

Through!—

If you wanted 'em to

Some actual facts that might interest you!

O The Man in the Moon has a crick in his back;

Whee!

Whimm!

Ain't you sorry for him?

And a mole on his nose that is purple and black; And his eyes are so weak that they water and run If he dares to dream even he looks at the sun,So he jes' dreams of stars, as the doctors advise

My!
Eyes!

But isn't he wise

To jes' dream of stars, as the doctors advise?

And The Man in the Moon has a boil on his ear

Whee!

Whing!

What a singular thing!

I know! but these facts are authentic, my dear,There's a boil on his ear; and a corn on his chin,—

He calls it a dimple-but dimples stick in-
Yet it might be a dimple turned over, you know!
Whang!
Ho!

Why, certainly so!

It might be a dimple turned over, you know!

And The Man in the Moon has a rheumatic knee,

Gee!

Whizz!

What a pity that is!

And his toes have worked round where his heels ought to be. So whenever he wants to go North he goes South,

And comes back with porridge crumbs all round his mouth, And he brushes them off with a Japanese fan.

Whing!

Whann!

What a marvellous man!

What a very remarkably marvellous man!

And The Man in the Moon," sighed the Raggedy Man "Gits!

So!

Sullonesome, you know,

Up there by hisse'f sence creation began !—
That when I call on him and then come away,
He grabs me and holds me and begs me to stay,-
Till-Well if it wasn't for Jimmy-cum-Jim,

Dadd!

Limb!

I'd go pardners with him

Jes' jump my bob here and be pardners with him!”

James Whitcomb Riley.

A Warning

THREE children sliding on the ice

Upon a summer's day,

It so fell out they all fell in,

The rest they ran away.

Now had these children been at home,
Or sliding on dry ground,

Ten thousand pounds to one penny
They had not all been drown'd.

You parents all that children have,
And you that have got none,

If you would have them safe abroad,
Pray keep them safe at home.

John Gay.

An Unsuspected Fact

F down his throat a man should choose

IF

In fun, to jump or slide,

He'd scrape his shoes against his teeth,

Nor dirt his own inside.

But if his teeth were lost and gone,

And not a stump to scrape upon,
He'd see at once how very pat
His tongue lay there, by way of mat,
And he would wipe his feet on that!

Rev. Edward Cannon.