THE HIPPOPOTAMUS
"Oh, say, what is this fearful, wild,
Incorrigible cuss?"
"This _creature_ (don't say 'cuss,' my child;
'Tis slang)--this creature fierce is styled
The Hippopotamus.
His curious name derives its source
From two Greek words: _hippos_--a horse,
_Potamos_--river. See?
The river's plain enough, of course;
But why they called _that_ thing a _horse_,
That's what is Greek to me."
_Oliver Herford_.
THE PLATYPUS
My child, the Duck-billed Platypus
A sad example sets for us:
From him we learn how Indecision
Of character provokes Derision.
This vacillating Thing, you see,
Could not decide which he would be,
Fish, Flesh or Fowl, and chose all three.
The scientists were sorely vexed
To classify him; so perplexed
Their brains, that they, with Rage at bay,
Call him a horrid name one day,--
A name that baffles, frights and shocks us,
Ornithorhynchus Paradoxus.
_Oliver Herford_.
SOME GEESE
Ev-er-y child who has the use
Of his sen-ses knows a goose.
See them un-der-neath the tree
Gath-er round the goose-girl's knee,
While she reads them by the hour
From the works of Scho-pen-hau-er.
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