1913.]
THE ALPHABET’S HOLIDAY
543
And when that man those letters met, To that misguided Alphabet He made a dark and dreadful threat, Which caused each one from A to Zed To shiver in his shoes with dread! “If,”—terrible his booming voice! To hear or not they had no choice,— “If,” he declared, “you don’t behave, But once this little wand I ’ll wave, And turn you all, in twenty whiffs, Into Egyptian Hieroglyphs!” O fearful words! O fate unknown! Oh, better, better far their own! Those frightened letters, how they jumped! How knees and elbows banged and bumped! They ran, they flew, they leaped, they skipped, In frantic haste they turned and tripped, Till, spent and breathless with the race, Each one regained his wonted place; And in their ancient order, led |
By him who always took the head, Once more they stood, from A to Zed. Then—not till then—the wizard blue His stern and awful gaze withdrew, And chuckling softly in his sleeve, Retired—to Jersey, I believe. But such the deep impress he made, The letters thus till now have stayed, And done their duty as before For all these many years, and more. Yet, even now, so teachers tell, In theme and composition,—well, Of course, we all know how to spell! And ’t is n’t fair, perhaps, to state,— But I myself, or soon or late, In strange misconduct here and there Of letters—not my fault, I swear!— I too have seen, I ’m free to say, Some traces of that fateful day When, as it cannot quite forget, In freedom roved the Alphabet! |
