"What I have in mind is told, in a foolish kind of a way, I suppose, by
Mr. Crow, who wrote the verses when Mr. Man's little girl Dolly wanted a
pet, and no matter how much she thought of one, if it died, or got lost,
the next that came along suited her almost as well.
"Of course I don't want you to suppose I think this is anything but
nonsense; but at the same time it carries out the idea of what I have
been trying to say," and then Mrs. Mouser repeated the following:
I once possessed an Elephant
Who fed on potted grouse;
One day I lost him, but I think
He's somewhere in the house.
[Illustration: The Delicate Pet.]
I had a Hippopotamus
Who really was quite slim;
He caught a chill, and so I thought
I'd best get rid of him.
I also had a gay Giraffe,
Whose antics made me wince;
He went a walk to Brooklyn town,
I've never seen him since.
[Illustration: The Pet Who Went to Brooklyn.]
The Puffing Fish that I possessed
Would fill my heart with pride;
But ah! one day I made a joke--
He laughed so that he died.
You should have seen my Polar Bear,
He was a lively beast;
But what became of him at last
I've no idea, the least.
[Illustration: The Very Sociable Pet.]
My Grizzly Bear was certainly
By all my friends admired.
He tried to climb the Monument,
And when he failed, expired.
Perhaps the dearest of them all
Was James, my Cockatoo--
He took to stopping out at nights;
I gave him to the Zoo
[Illustration: The Lively Pet]
So now I haven't anything;
It's lonely, I must own.
I'll get a little calf, I think--
I cannot live alone!
"I don't wonder you call that 'Menagerie Poetry,'" your Aunt Amy said
when Mrs. Mouser ceased speaking; "but I think I understood, even
without the aid of the verses, the moral you intended to draw."
"I should hope you did; but I remembered those lines, and it seemed to
me they came in just right. There is a story he tells about the Elephant
and the Bee, which teaches the same kind of a lesson."