Title: A Child's Primer Of Natural History
Author: Herford, Oliver, 1863-1935
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.
Copyright Status: Not copyrighted in the United States. If you live elsewhere check the laws of your country before downloading this ebook. See comments about copyright issues at end of book.

*** Start of this Doctrine Publishing Corporation Digital Book "A Child's Primer Of Natural History" ***


  A Child's Primer
  Of Natural History


  By Oliver Herford
  with Pictures by
  the Author


  Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1899



  Copyright 1899, by
  Oliver Herford



  CONTENTS

  A Seal
  The Giraffe
  The Yak
  A Whale
  The Leopard
  The Sloth
  The Elephant
  The Pig-Pen
  Some Geese
  The Ant
  An Arctic Hare
  The Wolf
  An Ostrich
  The Hippopotamus
  The Fly
  The Mongoos
  The Platypus
  The Chimpanzee
  A Mole
  The Rhinoceros
  A Penguin
  The Cat
  The Dog
  A Chameleon



      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
  Can't be a house-hold pet.
  Then does he to his grief give way,
  Or sink 'neath sor-row's ban?
  Oh, no; in-stead he spends each day
  Con-tri-ving some un-sel-fish way
  To be of use to Man.



      The Pig-Pen.


  OH, turn not from the hum-ble Pig,
  My child, or think him in-fra dig.
  We oft hear lit-er-a-ry men
  Boast of the in-flu-ence of the Pen;
  Yet when we read in His-to-ry's Page
  Of Hu-man Pigs in ev-er-y age,
  From Cr[oe]-sus to the pres-ent day,
  Is it, my child, so hard to say
  (De-spite the Scribes' vain-glo-ri-ous boast)
  What Pen has in-flu-enced Man the most?



      Some Geese.


  EV-ER-Y child who has the use
  Of his sen-ses knows a goose.
  See them un-der-neath the tree
  Gath-er round the goose-girl's knee,
  While she reads them by the hour
  From the works of Scho-pen-hau-er.
  How pa-tient-ly the geese at-tend!
  But do they re-al-ly com-pre-hend
  What Scho-pen-hau-er's driv-ing at?
  Oh, not at all; but what of that?
  Nei-ther do I; nei-ther does she;
  And, for that mat-ter, nor does he.



      The Ant.


  MY child, ob-serve the use-ful Ant,
  How hard she works each day.
  She works as hard as ad-a-mant
  (That's very hard, they say).
  She has no time to gal-li-vant;
  She has no time to play.
  Let Fido chase his tail all day;
  Let Kitty play at tag:
  She has no time to throw a-way,
  She has no tail to wag.
  She scurries round from morn till night;
  She ne-ver, ne-ver sleeps;
  She seiz-es ev-ery-thing in sight,
  And drags it home with all her might,
  And all she takes she keeps.



      An Arctic Hare.


  AN Arc-tic Hare we now be-hold.
    The hair, you will ob-serve, is white;
  But if you think the Hare is old,
   You will be ver-y far from right.
  The Hare is young, and yet the hair
    Grew white in but a sin-gle night.
  Why, then it must have been a scare
    That turned this Hare. No; 't was not fright
  (Al-though such cases are well known);
    I fear that once a-gain you're wrong.
  Know then, that in the Arc-tic Zone
    A sin-gle night is six months long.



      The Wolf.


  OH, yes, the Wolf is bad, it's true;
  But how with-out him could we do?
  If there were not a wolf, what good
  Would be the tale of RID-ING-HOOD?
  The Lit-tle Child from sin will fly
  When told the wick-ed Wolf is nigh;
  And when, ar-rived at Man's es-tate,
  He hears the Wolf out-side his gate,
  He knows it's time to put a-way
  I-dle fri-vol-i-ty and play.
  That's how (but do not men-tion it)
  This prim-er hap-pened to be writ.



      An Ostrich.


  THIS is an Os-trich. See him stand:
  His head is bur-ied in the sand.
  It is not that he seeks for food,
  Nor is he shy, nor is he rude;
  But he is sen-si-tive, and shrinks
  And hides his head when-e'er he thinks
  How, on the Gains-bor-ough hat some day
  Of some fine la-dy at the play,
  His fea-thers may ob-struct the view
  Of all the stage from me or you.



      The Hippopotamus.


  "OH, say, what is this fearful, wild
  In-cor-ri-gible cuss?"
  "This _crea-ture_ (don't say 'cuss,' my child;
  'T is slang)--this crea-ture fierce is styled The Hip-po-pot-am-us.
  His curious name de-rives its source
  From two Greek words: _hippos_--a horse,
  _Potamos_--river.  See?
  The river's plain e-nough, of course;
  But why they called that thing a horse,
  That's what is Greek to me."



      The Fly.


  OB-SERVE, my child, the House-hold Fly,
  With his ex-traor-di-na-ry eye:
  What-ev-er thing he may be-hold
  Is mul-ti-plied a thou-sand-fold.
  _We_ do not need a com-plex eye
  When we ob-serve the Household Fly:
  He is so vol-a-tile that he
  In _ev-ery_ place at once can be;
  He is the buzz-ing in-car-na-tion
  Of an-i-mate mul-ti-pli-ca-tion.
  Ah! chil-dren, who can tell the Why
  And Where-fore of the House-hold Fly?



      The Mongoos.


  THIS, Chil-dren, is the famed Mon-goos.
  He has an ap-pe-tite ab-struse;
  Strange to re-late, this crea-ture takes
  A cu-ri-ous joy in eat-ing snakes--
  All kinds, though, it must be con-fessed,
  He likes the poi-son-ous ones the best.
  From him we learn how ve-ry small
  A thing can bring a-bout a Fall.
  Oh, Mon-goos, where were you that day
  When Mis-tress Eve was led a-stray?
  If you'd but seen the ser-pent first,
  Our Parents would not have been cursed,
  And so there would be no ex-cuse
  For MIL-TON, but for you--Mon-goos!



      The Platypus.


  MY child, the Duck-billed Plat-y-pus
  A sad ex-am-ple sets for us:
  From him we learn how In-de-ci-sion
  Of char-ac-ter pro-vokes De-ri-sion.
  This vac-il-lat-ing Thing, you see,
  Could not de-cide which he would be,
  Fish, Flesh, or Fowl, and chose all three.
  The sci-en-tists were sore-ly vexed
  To clas-si-fy him; so per-plexed
  Their brains that they, with Rage at bay,
  Called him a hor-rid name one day,--
  A name that baf-fles, frights, and shocks us,--
  Or-ni-tho-rhyn-chus Par-a-dox-us.



      The Chimpanzee.


  CHIL-DREN, be-hold the Chim-pan-zee:
  He sits on the an-ces-tral tree
  From which we sprang in ag-es gone.
  I'm glad we sprang: had we held on,
  We might, for aught that I can say,
  Be hor-rid Chim-pan-zees to-day.



      A Mole.


  SEE, chil-dren, the mis-guid-ed Mole.
  He lives down in a deep, dark hole;
  Sweet-ness, and Light, and good Fresh Air
  Are things for which he does not care.
  He has not e-ven that make-shift
  Of fee-ble minds--the _so-cial gift_.
  But say not that he has no soul,
  Lest hap-ly we misjudge the Mole;
  Nay, if we mea-sure him by Men,
  No doubt he sits in his dark den
  In-struct-ing oth-ers blind as he
  Ex-act-ly how the world _should_ be.



      The Rhinoceros.


  SO this is the Rhi-no-ce-ros!
  I won-der why he looks so cross.
  Per-haps he is an-noyed a bit
  Be-cause his cloth-ing does not fit.
  (They say he got it read-y made!)
  It is not that, I am a-fraid.
  He looks so cross be-cause I drew
  Him with one horn in-stead of two.

  Well, since he cares so much for style,
  Let's give him two and see him smile.



      A Penguin.


  THE Pen-guin sits up-on the shore
  And loves the lit-tle fish to bore;
  He has one en-er-vat-ing joke
  That would a very Saint pro-voke:
  "The Pen-guin's might-i-er than the Sword-fish";
  He tells this dai-ly to the bored fish,
  Un-til they are so weak, they float
  With-out re-sis-tance down his throat.



      The Cat.


  OB-SERVE the Cat up-on this page.
  Phil-os-o-phers in ev-er-y age,
  The ver-y _wis-est_ of the wise,
  Have tried her mind to an-a-lyze
  In vain, for noth-ing can they learn.
  She baf-fles them at ev-er-y turn
  Like Mis-ter Ham-let in the play.
  She leads their rea-son-ing a-stray;
  She feigns an in-ter-est in string
  Or yarn or any roll-ing thing.
  Un-like the Dog, she does not care
  With com-mon Man her thoughts to share.
  She teach-es us that in life's walk
  'T is bet-ter to let oth-ers talk,
  And lis-ten while _they_ say in-stead
  The fool-ish things we might have said.



      The Dog.


  HERE is the Dog.  Since time be-gan,
  The Dog has been the friend of MAN,
  The Dog loves MAN be-cause he shears
  His coat and clips his tail and ears.
  MAN loves the Dog be-cause he'll stay
  And lis-ten to his talk all day,
  And wag his tail and show de-light
  At all his jokes, how-ev-er trite.
  His bark is far worse than his bite,
  So peo-ple say.  They may be right;
  Yet if to make a choice I had,
  I'd choose his bark, how-ev-er bad.



      A Chameleon.


  A USE-FUL les-son you may con,
  My Child, from the Cha-me-le-on:
  He has the gift, ex-treme-ly rare
  In an-i-mals, of sav-oir-faire.
  And if the se-cret you would guess
  Of the Cha-me-le-on's suc-cess,
  A-dapt your-self with great-est care
  To your sur-round-ings ev-er-y-where;
  And then, un-less your sex pre-vent,
  Some day you may be Pres-i-dent.



[Transcriber's Note: In this file, the ligatured oe character
is represented by "[oe]".]





*** End of this Doctrine Publishing Corporation Digital Book "A Child's Primer Of Natural History" ***

Doctrine Publishing Corporation provides digitized public domain materials.
Public domain books belong to the public and we are merely their custodians.
This effort is time consuming and expensive, so in order to keep providing
this resource, we have taken steps to prevent abuse by commercial parties,
including placing technical restrictions on automated querying.

We also ask that you:

+ Make non-commercial use of the files. We designed Doctrine Publishing
Corporation's search system for use by individuals, and we request that you
use these files for personal, non-commercial purposes.

+ Refrain from automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort
to Doctrine Publishing's system: If you are conducting research on machine
translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a
large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the use of
public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help.

+ Keep it legal -  Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for
ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just because
we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States,
that the work is also in the public domain for users in other countries.
Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we
can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of any specific book is
allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Doctrine Publishing
means it can be used in any manner anywhere in the world.
Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe.