ell as a Poker:

"Oh, I am a Poker bold and free,
And I poke the livelong day.
I love the land and I hate the sea,
But the sky and the clouds are there for me.

I dote on the Milky Way.
The clouds are as soft as a fleecy rug,
And as cool as cool can be.
The skies fit into my figure snug,
And they make me feel so blithe and smug
That I am glad Fate made me Me.
Oh Me!
Ah Me!
'Tis a lovely fate
And a mission great
To be
Like me
And to love the skies,
And the clouds to prize,
And to hate the turbulent sea,
He--he--
So I lift my voice
And I loud rejoice
That the Fates have made me Me."

"Hullo!" cried the Righthandiron.

"Halloa!" called the Lefthandiron.

"That's not my name," came the voice of the Poker from behind a cloud just
above Tom's head. "But I know who you mean, so I answer Halloa yourself."

"Where are you?" cried Lefty.

"Here," called the Poker.

"No, you're not," called Righty. "You're there. We are here."

"Well, that's neither here nor there," retorted the Poker, poking his head
out through the cloud. "Hullo! Who have you got there? That isn't Tom, is
it?"

"No--it's Sleepyhead D. Dormouse," laughed Lefty.

"Good," said the Poker, advancing and shaking Tom by the hand. "I was
afraid it was Tom. Not that I dislike Tom, for I don't. I think he is one
of the nicest boys I know--but he weighs a good fifty-seven pounds, and so
far we haven't been able to get a cloud strong enough to support more than
fifty-six. If Tom were to come up here and sit on a cloud he'd fall
through, and if he fell through, you know what would happen."

"No, I don't," said Tom, to whom the Poker's remarks were addressed. "What
would happen?"

"Well, in the first place, it would spoil the cloud, and in the second
place, if he tumbled into the sea he'd have to swim ashore," said the
Poker, sagely. "That's why I am glad you're young Mr. Dormouse, and not
Tom. Dormice can sit on the flimsiest clouds we have and not break
through."

"What is a Dormouse anyhow?" asked Tom, to whom it now occurred for the
first time that he had never seen a Dormouse.

"Ho!" jeered Righty, as Tom asked the question. "The idea of not knowing
what a Dormouse is!"

"He's a mouse with a door to him, of course," said Lefty.

"Which he keeps closed," said the Poker, "so that he will n