Black Beetles in Amber

And dumped promiscuous, anywhere,
In holes and trenches—all misfits—
Mixed up with one another's bits:
One's back-bone with another's shin,
A third one's skull with a fourth one's grin—
Your eye was never, never fixed
Upon a company so mixed!
Go now among them there and blow:
'Twill be as good as any show
To see them, when they hear the tones,
Compiling one another's bones!
But here 'tis vain to sound and wait:
Naught rises here but real estate.
I own it all and shan't disgorge.
Don't know me? I am Henry George.'

ARBOR DAY

Hasten, children, black and white—
Celebrate the yearly rite.
Every pupil plant a tree:
It will grow some day to be
Big and strong enough to bear
A School Director hanging there.

THE PIUTE

Unbeautiful is the Piute!
  Howe'er bedecked with bravery,
  His person is unsavory—
Of soap he's destitute.
He multiplies upon the earth
  In spite of all admonishing;
  All censure his astonishing
And versatile unworth.
Upon the Reservation wide
  We give for his inhabiting
  He goes a-jackass rabbiting
To furnish his inside.
The hopper singing in the grass
  He seizes with avidity:
  He loves its tart acidity,
And gobbles all that pass.
He penetrates the spider's veil,
  Industriously pillages
  The toads' defenseless villages,
And shadows home the snail.
He lightly runs to earth the quaint
  Red worm and, deftly troweling,
  He makes it with his boweling
Familiarly acquaint.
He tracks the pine-nut to its lair,
  Surrounds it with celerity,
  Regards it with asperity—
Smiles, and it isn't there!
I wish he'd open up a grin
  Of adequate vivacity
  And carrying capacity
To take his Agent in.

FAME

He held a book in his knotty paws,
  And its title grand read he:
'The Chronicles of the Kings' it was,
  By the History Companee.
'I'm a monarch,' he said
(But a tear he shed)
  'And my picter here you see.
'Great and lasting is my renown,
  However the wits may flout—
As wide almost as this blessed town'
  (But he winced as if with gout).
'I paid 'em like sin
For to put me in,
  But it's O, and O, to be out!'