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THE ALPHABET’S HOLIDAY
[April,
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“Hip, hip, hurrah! Break ranks!” cried A, “By laws all mortal things obey, I here proclaim a Holiday!” Then—stars and garters! what a sight! The letters flew to left and right; They danced and pranced this way and that, They stood up straight, they fell down flat. A scampered down to chat with Z, And X came skipping up to C. I stared at J, and J at I, And M and N kept asking Y. Q quarreled dreadfully with U, And H deserted W, And O made mouths—O fie!—to jeer , At U and I, his comrades dear! V proudly stood upon his head, Pretending he was A instead; And crooked S turned somersaults, And rudely hissed at others’ faults. K kicked at R, who tried to sing, F danced with L a Highland Fling; And B the banjo plucked, ping, ping! While P at leap-frog played with E, And arm in arm strolled D and G, And went and choked themselves with T! Meanwhile the world, I need not say, Was in a most distressing way! The teachers one and all resigned; The preachers were not far behind; The printers looked with streaming eye Upon their pages, full of “pi”; The authors wept by day and night Because their books they could not write; The ink in all the ink-wells dried; And all the little children cried Because (and some are crying yet!) They could not learn the Alphabet! What next had happened, no one knows, But all at once a man arose, A very wise and learned man (From Harvard or from Hindustan) Who could, with certain magic words, Turn eggs to rabbits, mice to birds, And things like that,—the kind, you know, You see each year at Barnum’s Show. |
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