Part 187 (1/2)
THE YAK
As a friend to the children commend me the yak, You will find it exactly the thing: It will carry and fetch, you can ride on its back, Or lead it about with a string.
A Tartar who dwells on the plains of Thibet (A desolate region of snow) Has for centuries made it a nursery pet, And surely the Tartar should know!
Then tell your papa where the Yak can be got, And if he is awfully rich, He will buy you the creature--or else he will not, (I cannot be positive which).
THE FROG
Be kind and tender to the Frog, And do not call him names, As ”Slimy-Skin,” or ”Polly-wog,”
Or likewise, ”Uncle James,”
Or ”Gape-a-grin,” or ”Toad-gone-wrong,”
Or, ”Billy-Bandy-knees;”
The Frog is justly sensitive To epithets like these.
No animal will more repay A treatment kind and fair, At least, so lonely people say Who keep a frog (and, by the way, They are extremely rare).
_Hilaire Belloc._
THE MICROBE
The Microbe is so very small You cannot make him out at all, But many sanguine people hope To see him through a microscope.
His jointed tongue that lies beneath A hundred curious rows of teeth; His seven tufted tails with lots Of lovely pink and purple spots
On each of which a pattern stands, Composed of forty separate bands; His eyebrows of a tender green; All these have never yet been seen-- But Scientists, who ought to know, a.s.sure us that they must be so....
Oh! let us never, never doubt What n.o.body is sure about!
_Hilaire Belloc._
THE GREAT BLACK CROW
The crow--the crow! the great black crow!
He cares not to meet us wherever we go; He cares not for man, beast, friend, nor foe, For nothing will eat him he well doth know.
Know--know! you great black crow!
It's a comfort to feel like a great black crow!
The crow--the crow! the great black crow!
He loves the fat meadow--his taste is low; He loves the fat worms, and he dines in a row With fifty fine cousins all black as a sloe.
Sloe--sloe! you great black crow!
But it's jolly to fare like a great black crow!