wag their queer
Long trunks, and peer
Through their beady eyes,--folks say they know
No end of things, and I'm sure it's so!
And you never must do a thing that's bad
Or that possibly might make an elephant mad,
For he'll never forgive you, it appears,
And will punish you sure, if it takes him _years!_
So do not stare
But take good care
To mind your manners, and always try
To smile politely as they go by!

But the camels don't care if you laugh at them
With their bumpy humps like a capital M,
They lurch and sway
And seem to say,
As they wrinkle their noses, long and gray,
"This swaggering stride is quite the plan,
It's the way we walked in the caravan!"

And now more cages come rumbling by
With glittering people throned on high;
So many spangles and precious things,
They surely must all be queens and kings!
They look so proud
Above the crowd,
O my, how fine it must feel to ride
On golden wagons that hide inside
Strange animals caught in cannibal isles
And brought in ships for a million miles!
But hark! it's near
The end, for hear
That sudden screeching in piercing key!
The steaming, screaming _cal-li-o-pe_!
Just plain pianos sound terribly tame
Beside this one with the wonderful name,
And wouldn't you love some day to sit
In a circus wagon and play on it?

MAY-BASKETS

Let us take our baskets early
To the meadows green,
While the wild-flowers still are pearly
With the dewdrops' sheen.

Fill them full of blossoms rosy,
Violets and gay
Cowslips, every pretty posy
Welcoming the May.

Then our lovely loads we'll carry
Down the village street,
On each door, with laughter merry,
Hang a basket sweet.

Hey-a-day-day! It is spring now,
Lazy folks, awake!
See the pretty things we bring now
For the May-day's sake!

THE PICTURE-BOOK GIANT

Once there was a fierce, defiant,
Greedy, grumpy, grizzly giant
In the pages of a picture-book, and he
Sometimes screamed, in sudden rages,
"I must jump out from these pages,
For this life's a much too humdrum one for me!
Fiddle-dee!
Yes, this life's a quite too quiet one