Author of The Yellow Knight of Oz, Ozoplaning with the Wizard in Oz, and The Wish Express, etc.
Originally published in the Philadelphia Public Ledger, June 15, 1919.
(An elf man once showed me the way),
’Tis a couple of smiles and a number of miles
Just beyond the Great Kingdom of Play!
And who do you s’pose it was built for? Heigh-ho!
Why for old and infirm broken toys—
For dolls without wigs and for little lame pigs
Who’ve been played out by girls and by boys!
For one-legged bowwows and lambs without tails,
And for rag-tag dolls too—if you please—
Every day they arrive—and my goody alive—
They just look like poor war refugees!
A little fat fairy—who never has wed—
Keeps the home—and the darling old dear
Sees the toys are all mended and properly fed,
And dispenses large doses of cheer!
And if you should peek in some fine afternoon,
You’d see Teddy Bears leaning on canes,
And dollies with crutches all sociably talking
Or walking in all of the lanes.
They have dances and teas—and the merriest times
In the Home up on Rockinghorse Hill—
Those old worn-out toys—do you know, girls and boys,
Just to think of it gives me a thrill!
THE FORGETFUL POET
By Ruth Plumly Thompson
Originally published in the Philadelphia Public Ledger, December 12, 1920.
Puzzles
The Forgetful Poet is so busy with the last of his Christmas shopping that he cannot stop to think up any new riddles, but he hopes you guessed those last week. The first was easy—XLNC for “his excellency” the ambassador, you know. And, of course, the chimney, down which Old Kriss comes, has a knee and a throat and smokes like a man. And the little couplet should read:
A score of days, fourteen and SIX,
The twenty-fifth is old ST. NICK’S (Day).
Copyright © 2017 Eric Shanower and David Maxine. All rights reserved.
