WEBSTER'S LITTLE FOLKS' SPEAKER. GOOD FOR SOMETHING. ANON. [Speak in as natural a way as you can.] "Good for nothing little son," Papa calls me, just for fun; I'm good for something all the day. Good to clatter up the room; Good to ride outside the broom; Good to tip the basket o'er And roll the spools about the floor. Good to pull the baby's hair And make a horse of every chair; Good to tumble on the floor And shut poor fingers in the door. Good to wear out little shoes Good, before I go to sleep, To pray the Lord my soul to keep, Good to wake up with the day, DAME DUCK'S FIRST LECTURE ON MANNERS. ANON. [To be given in a simple, direct way, imitating the quacking of a duck in the last stanza.] Old Mother Duck has hatched a brood Of ducklings small and callow; Close by the margin of the brook Of straw, and leaves, and withered grass, And there she sat for four long weeks, Until the ducklings all came out— One peeped out from beneath her wing, "That's very rude," said old Dame Duck; AN OLD HEN. M. M. D. [Speak as if you were telling a great secret.] An old hen sat on turtles' eggs And she hatched out goslings three; Two were turkeys with slender legs, THE OWL AND THE PUSSY CAT. EDWARD LEAR. [Give in a comical, descriptive manner.] The owl and the pussy cat went to sea They took some honey, and plenty of money The owl looked up to the moon above, "Oh, lovely pussy! Oh, pussy, my love! What a beautiful pussy you are!" Pussy said to the owl: "You elegant fowl, Oh, let us be married, too long we have tarried, They sailed away, for a year and a day, With a ring in the end of his nose! "Dear pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling They dined on mince and slices of quince, They danced by the light of the moon! [Speak as if you were telling a great secret.] I never spoke before to-day. And, as I've nothing much to say, [Give this in a mock pedantic sort of style.] "Todes is like frogs, but more dignity, and wen you come to think of it frogs is wetter. The warts which todes is noted for can't be cured, for they is cronick; but if I couldn't git well I'd stay in the house. My grandfather knew a tode which somebody had tamed till it new folks. When its master wissled it would come for flies. They ketches 'em with their tung, wich is some like a long red worm, but more like litenin', only litenin ain't got any gum onto it. The fly will be a standin' a rubbin' its hine legs together, and a thinkin' what a fine fly it is, and a tode a settin some distance away like it was asleep. While you are seein' the fly as plain as you ever see anything, all to once it ain't there. Then the tode he looks up at you sollem, out of his eyes, like he said, 'what's become of that fly?' But you know he et it." |