Whatever did his fancy catch

By way of food, he would not wait
To be invited, but would snatch
It from one's table, hand, or plate.

He riled the dog, annoyed the cat,
And scared the goldfish into fits;
He butted through my newest hat,
And tore my manuscript to bits.

'Twas strange, so light his hooflets weighed, His limbs as slender as a hare's,

The noise my little Selim made
In trotting up and down the stairs.

To tie him up I thought was wise,
But loss of freedom gave him pain;
I could not stand those pleading eyes,
And so I let him go again.

How sweet to see him skip and prance
Upon the gravel or the lawn;

More light in step than fairies' dance,
More graceful than an English fawn.

But then he spoilt the garden so,
Trod down the beds, raked up the seeds,
And ate the plants-nor did he show
The least compunction for his deeds.

He trespassed on the neighbors' ground,
And broke two costly melon frames,
With other damages-a pound

To pay, resulted from his games.

In short, the mischief was immense
That from his gamesome pranks befel,
And, truly, in a double sense,

He proved a very "dear Gazelle."

The Ballad of the Emeu

At length I sighed-" Ah, ever thus

Doth disappointment mock each hope;

But 'tis in vain to make a fuss;
You'll have to go, my antelope."

The chance I wished for did occur;
A lady going to the East
Was willing; so I gave to her
That little antelopian beast.

I said, "This antler'd desert child
In Turkish palaces may roam,
But he is much too free and wild
To keep in any English home."

Yes, tho' I gave him up with tears,
Experience had broke the spell,
And if I live a thousand years,
I'll never have a young Gazelle.

921

Walter Parke.

THE BALLAD OF THE EMEU

O SAY, have you seen at the Willows so green-
So charming and rurally true—

A Singular bird, with a manner absurd,
Which they call the Australian Emeu?
Have you?

Ever seen this Australian Emeu?

It trots all around with its head on the ground,
Or erects it quite out of your view;

And the ladies all cry, when its figure they spy,
"O, what a sweet pretty Emeu!

Oh! do

Just look at that lovely Emeu!"

One day to this spot, when the weather was hot,
Came Matilda Hortense Fortescue;

And beside her there came a youth of high name

Augustus Florell Montague:

The two

Both loved that wild foreign Emeu.

With two loaves of bread then they fed it, instead
Of the flesh of the white cockatoo,

Which once was its food in that wild neighbourhood
Where ranges the sweet kangaroo

That, too,

Is game for the famous Emeu!

Old saws and gimlets but its appetite whet
Like the world famous bark of Peru;

There's nothing so hard that the bird will discard,
And nothing its taste will eschew,

That you

Can give that long-legged Emeu!

The time slipped away in this innocent play,
When up jumped the bold Montague:
"Where's that specimen pin that I gaily did win
In raffle, and gave unto you,

Fortescue?"

No word spoke the guilty Emeu!

"Quick! tell me his name whom thou gavest that same, Ere these hands in thy blood I imbrue!

"Nay, dearest," she cried as she clung to his side, "I'm innocent as that Emeu!"

"Adieu!"

He replied, "Miss M. H. Fortescue!"

Down she dropped at his feet, all as white as a sheet,

As wildly he fled from her view;

He thought 'twas her sin-for he knew not the pin Had been gobbled up by the Emeu;

All through

"I'm innocent as that Emeu!"

Bret Harte.

The Turtle and the Flamingo

THE TURTLE AND FLAMINGO

A LIVELY young turtle lived down by the banks
Of a dark rolling stream called the Jingo;
And one summer day, as he went out to play,
Fell in love with a charming flamingo-
An enormously genteel flamingo!

An expansively crimson flamingo!

A beautiful, bouncing flamingo!

Spake the turtle, in tones like a delicate wheeze:

"To the water I've oft seen you in go,

And your form has impressed itself deep on my shell, You perfectly modelled flamingo!

You tremendously A-1 flamingo!

You in-ex-press-i-ble flamingo!

"To be sure, I'm a turtle, and you are a belle,

And my language is not your fine lingo;

But smile on me, tall one, and be my bright flame,

You miraculous, wondrous flamingo!

You blazingly beauteous flamingo!

You turtle-absorbing flamingo!

You inflammably gorgeous flamingo!"

Then the proud bird blushed redder than ever before,

And that was quite un-nec-es-sa-ry,

And she stood on one leg and looked out of one eye,

The position of things for to vary,

This aquatical, musing flamingo!

This dreamy, uncertain flamingo!

This embarrasing, harassing flamingo!

Then she cried to the quadruped, greatly amazed:

"Why your passion toward me do you hurtle?

I'm an ornithological wonder of grace,

And you're an illogical turtle,

A waddling, impossible turtle!
A low-minded, grass-eating turtle!

A highly improbable turtle!"

923

Then the turtle sneaked off with his nose to the ground

And never more looked at the lasses;

And falling asleep, while indulging his grief,

Was gobbled up whole by Agassiz,

The peripatetic Agassiz!

The turtle-dissecting Agassiz!

The illustrious, industrious Agassiz!

Go with me to Cambridge some cool, pleasant day,
And the skeleton lover I'll show you;

He's in a hard case, but he'll look in your face,
Pretending (the rogue!) he don't know you!
Oh, the deeply deceptive young turtle!
The double-faced, glassy-cased turtle!
The green but a very mock turtle!

James Thomas Fields.