The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bad Child's Book of Beasts, by Hilaire Belloc

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Title: Bad Child's Book of Beasts

Author: Hilaire Belloc

Illustrator: Ian Basil Gawaine Temple, Lord. Blackwood

Release Date: November 6, 2008 [EBook #27175]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BAD CHILD'S BOOK OF BEASTS ***

Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, some images
courtesy of The Internet Archive and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

[Illustration]

THE
BAD CHILD'S
BOOK OF
BEASTS

Verses by
H. BELLOC

Pictures by
B. T. B.

DUCKWORTH,
3 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN

Child! do not throw this book about;
Refrain from the unholy pleasure
Of cutting all the pictures out!
Preserve it as your chiefest treasure.

Child, have you never heard it said
That you are heir to all the ages?
Why, then, your hands were never made
To tear these beautiful thick pages!

Your little hands were made to take
The better things and leave the worse ones.
They also may be used to shake
The Massive Paws of Elder Persons.

And when your prayers complete the day,
Darling, your little tiny hands
Were also made, I think, to pray
For men that lose their fairylands.

_Made and Printed in Great Britain by The Camelot
Press Limited, London and Southampton_

DEDICATION

To

Master EVELYN BELL
Of Oxford

Evelyn Bell,
I love you well.

[Illustration]

INTRODUCTION

I CALL you bad, my little child,
Upon the title page,
Because a manner rude and wild
Is common at your age.

The Moral of this priceless work
(If rightly understood)
Will make you--from a little Turk--
Unnaturally good.

Do not as evil children