Among the Animals
One rainy morning,
Just for a lark,
I jumped and stamped
On my new Noah’s Ark:
I crushed an elephant,
Smashed a gnu,
And snapped a camel
Clean in two;
I finished the wolf
Without half tryin’,
And wild hyena,
And roaring lion;
I knocked down Ham,
And Japhet, too,
And cracked the leg
Of the kangaroo;
I finished, beside,
Two pigs and a donkey,
A polar bear,
Opossum, and monkey;
Also the lions,
Tigers, and cats,
And dromedaries,
And tiny rats—
There wasn’t a thing
That didn’t feel,
Sooner or later,
The weight o’ my heel;
I felt as grand
As grand could be—
But oh the whipping
My mammy gave me!
Old Doctor Paff, he used to laugh
Whenever he saw the brindle calf.
But Doctor Paff thought best to bow
When at last he met the brindle cow.