Читать книгу Artful Anticks - Herford Oliver - Страница 6

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A gifted ant, who could no more

Than keep starvation from her door,

Once cast about that she might find

An occupation to her mind.

An ant with active hands and feet

Can, as a rule, make both ends meet.

Unhappily, this was not quite

The case with her of whom I write.

“Since I am gifted,” she’d explain,

“I ought to exercise my brain.

The only thing for me, it’s clear,

Is a professional career!”

But no profession could she find,

Until one day there crossed her mind

The proverb bidding sluggards gaze

Upon the ant to learn her ways.

“The very thing!” she cried. “Hurray!

I’ll advertise without delay.

Things are come to a pretty pass,

If I can’t teach a sluggard class!”

She set to work without delay,

And wrote some cards that very day;

And hung them in the grass—a plan

To catch the sluggard’s eye. They ran

As follows:

Sluggards who desire

An education to acquire

Will find it well to call to-day

Upon Professor Ant, B. A.

Her Sluggard Class, she begs to state,

Reopens at an early date

With several vacancies—a chance

Exceptional—

Terms—In Advance.