A Child's Primer Of Natural History
Oliver Herford




Herford Oliver

A Child's Primer Of Natural History





A Seal


		SEE, chil-dren, the Fur-bear-ing Seal;
		Ob-serve his mis-di-rect-ed zeal:
		He dines with most ab-ste-mi-ous care
		On Fish, Ice Water and Fresh Air
		A-void-ing cond-i-ments or spice,
		For fear his fur should not be nice
		And fine and smooth and soft and meet
		For Broad-way or for Re-gent Street
		And yet some-how I of-ten feel
		(Though for the kind Fur-bear-ing Seal
		I har-bor a Re-spect Pro-found)




The Giraffe


		SEE the Gi-raffe; he is so tall
		There is not room to get him all
		U-pon the page. His head is high-er —
		The pic-ture proves it – than the Spire.
		That's why the na-tives, when they race
		To catch him, call it stee-ple-chase.
		His chief de-light it is to set
		A good example: shine or wet
		He rises ere the break of day,
		And starts his break-fast right away.
		His food has such a way to go, —
		His throat's so very long, – and so
		An early break-fast he must munch
		To get it down ere time for lunch.




The Yak


		THIS is the Yak, so neg-li-gée:
		His coif-fure's like a stack of hay;
		He lives so far from Any-where,
		I fear the Yak neg-lects his hair,
		And thinks, since there is none to see,
		What mat-ter how un-kempt he be.
		How would he feel if he but knew
		That in this Pic-ture-book I drew
		His Phys-i-og-no-my un-shorn,
		For chil-dren to de-ride and scorn?




A Whale


		THE con-sci-en-tious art-ist tries
		On-ly to draw what meets his eyes.
		This is the Whale; he seems to be
		A spout of wa-ter in the sea.
		Now, Hux-ley from one bone could make
		An un-known beast; so if I take
		This spout of wa-ter, and from thence
		Con-struct a Whale by in-fer-ence,
		A Whale, I ven-ture to as-sert,
		Must be an an-i-mat-ed squirt!
		Thus, chil-dren, we the truth may sift
		By use of Log-ic's Price-less Gift.




The Leopard


		THIS is the Le-o-pard, my child;
		His tem-per's any-thing but mild.
		The Le-o-pard can't change his spots,
		And that – so say the Hot-ten-tots —
		Is why he is so wild.
		Year in, year out, he may not change,
		No mat-ter how the wea-ther range,
		From cold to hot. No won-der, child,
		We hear the Le-o-pard is wild.




The Sloth


		THE Sloth en-joys a life of Ease;
		He hangs in-vert-ed from the trees,
		And views life up-side down.
		If you, my child, are noth-ing loath
		To live in In-dol-ence and Sloth,
		Un-heed-ing the World's frown,
		You, too, un-vexed by Toil and Strife,
		May take a hu-mor-ous view of life.




The Elephant


		THIS is the El-e-phant, who lives
		With but one aim – to please.
		His i-vo-ry tusk he free-ly gives
		To make pi-a-no keys.
		One grief he has – how-e'er he tries,
		He nev-er can for-get
		That one of his e-nor-mous size




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