comfortable,
miserable chatter.
To begin, then. This morning I woke, and thought I was
up with the sun.
So never hurried myself; but dressed slow, and came down,
to find breakfast all done,
And nothing left for me but one cold slapjack, and all
the chicken gone,
Unless, to be sure, I could have eaten the drumsticks,
and one perfectly clean breast bone!
And, of course, I had to make haste, for it was nine
o'clock and after,
And the master had offered a prize to the earliest boy--and
here was I beaten by even lazy Tommy Shafter!
But it was no use to fret, so I snatched up my satchel, and
would have been off in a minute,
When lo and behold! my geography was gone; and though we hunted
the house, it was plain it wasn't in it,
Till at last I remembered that yesterday I had gone after school
to the dog pound,
And then been fishing with Fred Lee; so, probably, it was at the
bottom of the frog pond!
Well, off to school I went, and came in after every schoolmate;
So, to pay me off, the schoolmaster and all the boys called me
Bobby Toolate!
But that wasn't all; for the class was just up for spelling,
And I didn't know the lesson, and Tommy Shafter prompted me to
spell boots _butes_; and that's all I got for telling,
Besides going to the foot of the class, and having to get the
lesson over;
I tell you what! a hand-organ monkey's life, compared to a
schoolboy's, is perfect rolling in clover!
And I wish I was a monkey, if I did get beaten--yes, that I do--
In a red coat all over spangles, and blue trowsers, and a long
tail behind to come through!
Well, thank goodness, it's over; but that's not the half of my
pother;
For the very minute I got out of school, Tommy Shafter began
to plague and bother,
And wanted me to ride on the gate with him that goes in to his
grandfather Chowser's;
So I did; but there's spikes on the top of that gate; and,
confound it, I went to work and tore my trowsers!
Just then along came Miss Kitty Snow, and didn't I look dashing,
And that hateful Tommy Shafter bawled out "How are you, trowsers?"
and jumped down and walked off with her; but just see if I
don't give him a thrashing!
To pay him off for what he did and more too; for, when I came home
weeping and wailing,
Pa boxed my ears, and said I was such a bad bo