Prince Curlilocks remarked one day
To Princess Dimplecheek,
"I haven't had a real good play
For more than 'most a week."
Said Princess Dimplecheek, "My dear,
Your majesty forgets--
This morning we played grenadier
With grandpa's epaulets.
"And yesterday we sailed to Spain--
We both were pirates bold,
And braved the wild and raging main
To seek for hidden gold."
"True," said the prince; "I mind me well--
Right hardily we fought,
And stormed a massive citadel
To gain the prize we sought.
"But if your ladyship agrees,
Methinks we'll go upstairs
And build a waste of arctic seas,
And we'll be polar bears."
"Yes, if you'll promise not to bite,"
Fair Dimplecheek replied,
Already half-way up the flight,
His highness by her side.
"Princess, on that far window-seat,
Go, sit thee down and wait,
While I ask nursie for a sheet,
Or maybe six or eight."
A pile of sheets his highness brought.
"Dear princess, pray take these;
Although our path with danger's fraught,
We'll reach the polar seas."
Two furry rugs his lordship bore,
Two pairs of mittens white;
He threw them on the nursery floor
And shouted with delight.
He spread those sheets--the funny boy--
O'er table, floor, and chair.
"Princess," said he, "don't you enjoy
This frosty, bracing air?
"These snowy sheets are fields of ice,
This is an iceberg grim."
"Yes, dear, I think it's very nice,"
She said, and smiled at him.
And then they donned the rugs of fur,
The mittens, too, they wore;
And Curlilocks remarked to her,
"Now you must roar and roar."
[Illustration]
Dimplecheek looked out from the cowl
Formed by her furry rug.
"I'm 'fraid of bears that only growl--
I like the kind that hug."