Читать книгу More About Teddy B. and Teddy G., the Roosevelt Bears - Seymour Eaton - Страница 6

How The
Roosevelt Bears
reached
NEW YORK

Table of Contents

The Roosevelt Bears were born out West

In a big ravine near a mountain crest,

Where they lived as cubs and had such play

As Teddy Bears have every day.

But they learned some things as years went by

Of cities great and buildings high,

And trains that run at rapid speed,

And schools which teach folks how to read,

And circus clowns and phonograph

And other things which make folks laugh,

And big hotels where meals they say

Are served in style both night and day.

They had heard of men of great renown

Who lived and died in Boston town;

Of rulers brave and statesmen bold

And millionaires with barrels of gold;

Of men who work just day by day

For boys and girls and daily pay;

And of one they heard who works for fun:

The President at Washington.

These bears some travel books had found

Which told them the world is round.

They made up their minds that they would see

And learn about geography

And visit cities everywhere

And introduce the Teddy Bear.

They found some gold in a cave one day

Which they could use to pay their way.

“They found some gold in a cave one day.”

So one bright morn they said good-bye

To cave and creek and mountain high,

To an old bobcat with a bandaged knee,

To a young cougar and squirrels three,

To a big-horn sheep and a mountain deer,

And to other friends that lived quite near;

And with bags on backs and sticks in hand

They started their tramp across the land.

The black bear’s name was TEDDY-B;

The B for black or brown, you see.

And TEDDY-G was the gray bear’s name;

The G for gray; but both bears came

For “Teddy” because

Children called them Teddy Bears.

The “Teddy” part is a name they found

On hat and tree and leggings round,

On belt and boot and plates of tin,

And scraps of paper and biscuits thin,

And other things a hunter dropped

At a mountain camp where he had stopped.

The story tells how these Teddy Bears

Scattered forever all blues and cares,

And made fun and frolic and mischief too,

And did some tricks for bears quite new;

And how some boys, the stories tell,

Liked these two Teddy Bears so well

That they made a million for the stores to sell:

Some quite little, for children small,

And some as big as the bears are tall;

The brown ones looking like TEDDY-B,

And the white as funny as TEDDY-G.

The story goes on to tell how far

These two bears rode in a Pullman car,

And the tricks they played on folks that night

When the colored porter put out the light;

And how TEDDY-G wouldn’t sleep upstairs

“On a shelf,” he said, “too small for bears.”

He wanted a window; he wanted to see;

And he kept folks awake till half-past three.

And the story tells of other tricks

In the dining car, and of a mix

When TEDDY-G pulled a rope on top

And brought the train to a sudden stop;

And how the two were put off the train

On a Kansas farm in a shower of rain.

The fun they had from that time on

Fills every page of Book Number One.

They started by learning the famous trick

How farmer boys get ahead so quick.

But the things they did would take your breath,

For they scared the farmer half to death.

The horses were put at gathering eggs,

And pigs walked round on two hind legs,

And sheep were given the corn to hoe

And potatoes to plant and wheat to sow.

The story tells how an angry bull

Made a pasture field look pretty full

And chased the two bears round a stack

And over the top and down and back.

From there to a district school they went,

On mischief and education bent,

Where things were done by TEDDY-B,

Who hit the desk and said that he

Would make letters dance and figures fly

And good boys laugh and bad boys cry;

The questions he gave; and the boys, their look;

They had never seen them in a book:

If a camel can go without water a week

How long can he go if he owns a creek?

And this, to bound the moon and sky,

And name the capital of by-and-by;

And a hundred more as hard and tough,

Till the children said they had enough;

But when they left the school that day

The children were happy, the farmers say.

The story tells how in railway style

They ran an engine for a mile

And spent a day at a county show

And helped the boys to make things go;

How they walked on ropes drawn good and tight

And jumped through hoops and landed right;

And of the ride in an old balloon

Which took them half-way to the moon;

And things that happened in the sky that night

And the way the world went out of sight;

And how they landed in Lincoln Park

In Chicago town just ’fore dark,

And the big hotel on a busy street

Where waiters brought them things to eat.

How they rang for bell boys, just for fun,

To give them a quarter and see them run;

And the fun they made in vaudeville;

Children are laughing about it still.

And the bargain sale; TEDDY-G got lost;

And the things they bought and what they cost;

And their trip to Niagara Falls that night,

And what they thought of Niagara’s height,

And the picnic boys and the boating stunt

When they shot the rapids in a punt;

And how the boys made cheering go

When the train pulled out for Buffalo.

The story tells of their further jaunt

And of TEDDY-G at a restaurant;

How he missed his train and lost his mate;

For TEDDY-B had risen late;

And the jolly crowds the bears to greet

To cheer them all along the street

As they rode from station to Common green

In Boston town like king or queen;

And of the home on Beacon Hill

Where Priscilla Alden and her brother Will

Entertained them gladly days and nights

While they were seeing the Boston sights.

But the things they did in Boston town

Are done in picture and written down

In Volume One by Teddy’s paw,

The jolliest book you ever saw.

It tells how they captured Bunker Hill

And worked like soldiers with stubborn will;

And how they got lost in Boston squares

Where criss-cross streets run everywheres;

And the time they had at Plymouth Rock

When trying to make forefathers talk;

And the auto ride to Lexington

Which nearly cost them all their fun,

For TEDDY-G would chauffeur be

And he ran that car like sixty-three;

It didn’t run; he made it sail

And landed himself and his mate in jail.

The story tells of their Harvard tricks,

Where they got themselves in another mix

In getting degrees, a double-L-D,

Which didn’t fit well on TEDDY-G;

It tells about the talking machine,

The funniest thing they had ever seen;

How they danced a two-step and sang as well

And heard Uncle Josh his stories tell;

It tells of the time when they went to see

Where the Boston patriots made good tea

In seventeen hundred and sixty-three;

And then of their sail in a little skiff,

And how a storm hit them a biff

And sent them out on the ocean wide,

Half-way across to the other side;

And how at noon there came in sight

A tower of ice all glistening white;

And how they met away out, there

On this iceberg white a polar bear;

And the stories he told of a northern pole

Which was never seen by a living soul,

But it carried a flag both night and day,

The stars and stripes of the U. S. A.;

And the story tells of the rescue made

And how the steamer crowds hurrahed

As “Yankee Doodle” the brass band played;

And then it tells, this jolly book,

How reporters met them at Sandy Hook

And asked them questions and pictures took;

And of New York and its buildings high,

And how the bears made money fly,

And dressed in style to see the town,

To do Fifth Avenue up and down;

And the guide they hired, wee Muddy Pete,

A lad whose home was on the street,

And his little dog, a terrier white,

Pete’s boon companion day and night.

The story tells of the circus show

Where the two bears helped to make things go;

How like heroes of a hundred fights

The Roosevelt Bears in colored tights

Stepped in the ring to dance or sing,

To ride or tumble or anything.

So these Teddy Bears are here to stay:

They came from the West one summer’s day

And journeyed East from town to town

And gathered fame and much renown.

Book Number One (boys know it well)

The pictures show and the stories tell

Of how they crossed the U. S. A.

(And made folks laugh both night and day)

To New York City, there to be told

That Teddy Bears in the shops were sold.

But the bears in the shops are only toys

Made to please good girls and boys.

These Roosevelt Bears, TEDDIES-B and G,

Are as full of mischief as you or me;

They laugh and talk and sleep and eat

And go around on two hind feet

And ride on cars and wear good clothes;

And the things they do, dear only knows,

For they read from books and music play

And lose themselves nearly every day.

But the story here and these pictures new

Tell things about them just as true

As the things that happened, children say,

From West to East along the way.