So very far away from home,
Lest someone, thinking her striped gown
Was candy-stick, might eat her down.

"I'm stopping for a moment just to say 'How-do-you-do?'
I've just been decorated with this ribbon of deep blue
Because of all the gracefulness with which I trot and prance--
No wonder that you give Sir Horse your most admiring glance!"

This tale is not so very new,
And, no doubt, has been told to you,
But Donkey went to school to play,
And now he sits dressed up this way.

Here is the only baby who never makes a noise
(Which must be very puzzling to little girls and boys).
Yet the Giraffe is happy 'though he cannot shout or sing,
For with that great long neck of his he can reach anything.

The tapir feeds on leaves and fruit
He's very, very hard to suit,
For boys who don't like bread and meat
Have to find other things to eat.

He has climbed to the top of a rocky throne
To look down on a land once so proudly his own,
His people are scattered, he has no place to go,
He is weary and sad, poor King Buffalo.

"Lemonade, lemonade," the bold monkey cried,
"It's only five cents, and it's cooling beside."
Miss Camel just sniffed and tossed high her head,--
"I drink only every nine days, sir," she said.

Milk or meat or leather for shoes,--
Almost anything that we choose,--
We'll find the good Cow gives with joy
To every nice little girl and boy.

I wonder where the names come from (I'm sure that you do, too).
For instance, there's the animal that has been called the Gnu.
His race is just as strange, too, for no one seems to know
Just what he is--an antelope, horse, bull or buffalo.

Big moose came boldly from behind the tall trees,
And said in loud voice: "Who called, if you please?
I'm ready to meet any one who says 'Fight,'
But we'll come in the open and do the thing right."

I am not sure I'd care to meet
This Big Horn Goat upon the street.
Not when his eyes and smile and air
Just seem to shout: "Come, if you dare!'

Brave soldier ibex stalks before the mountain fortress high,
And watches eagerly to note a stranger passing by.
"Who's there?" he calls, and to his friends he whistles the alarm,
And off they go to mountain tops where they are safe from harm.

The chamois lives in the mountains high,
He's ever and ever and ever so spry;
He leaps and he plays with never a fall--
I'm sure that you never could do that at all.

Billy Goat and Nanny Goat went out one day to tea.
They promised Mother G