t,
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."

The Very Merry Voyage of the Macaroni Man

This figure here before you is a Macaroni Man,
Who is built, as you may notice, on a most ingenious plan.
His skeleton, I beg to state, is made of hairpins three,
Which are bent and curved and twisted to a marvellous degree.
His coat-sleeves and his trouser-legs, his head and eke his waist
Are made of superfine imported macaroni paste.
And if you care to listen, you may hear the thrilling tale
Of the merry Macaroni Man's extraordinary sail.
One sunny day he started for a voyage in his yacht,
His anxious mother called to him, and said, "You'd better not!
Although the sun is shining bright, I fear that it may rain;
And don't you think, my darling boy, you'd better take the train?"
"Oh, no," said he, "no clouds I see,--the sky is blue and clear,
I will return in time for tea--good-by, my mother dear."

[Illustration]

Full merrily he started off, the day was fine and fair,
And to his great delight he found no dampness in the air.
You know if he gets wet, a Macaroni Man is spoiled,
And if he stands too near the steam, of course he may get boiled.
But our hero used precautions,--carefully he shunned the spray,--
And when the steam blew toward him, he just steered the other way.
Now, as the breeze was from the land, his course lay out to sea;
He sailed so far that he felt sure he would be late for tea.
He sailed, and sailed, and sailed, and sailed,--
he feared the dew would fall--
He tried to turn,--but oh, that steam! it would not do a