Children's poetry, English; English poetry; English wit and humor; Humorous poetry, English; Nonsense verses, English
When they had landed, they walked about, but found, to their great
surprise, that the island was quite full of veal-cutlets and
chocolate-drops, and nothing else. So they all climbed up the single high
tree to discover, if possible, if there were any people; but having
remained on the top of the tree for a week, and not seeing anybody, they
naturally concluded that there were no inhabitants; and accordingly, when
they came down, they loaded the boat with two thousand veal-cutlets and a
million of chocolate-drops; and these afforded them sustenance for more
than a month, during which time they pursued their voyage with the utmost
delight and apathy.
[Illustration]
After this they came to a shore where there were no less than sixty-five
great red parrots with blue tails, sitting on a rail all of a row, and all
fast asleep. And I am sorry to say that the Pussy-Cat and the
Quangle-Wangle crept softly, and bit off the tail-feathers of all the
sixty-five parrots; for which Violet reproved them both severely.
[Illustration]
Notwithstanding which, she proceeded to insert all the feathers--two
hundred and sixty in number--in her bonnet; thereby causing it to have a
lovely and glittering appearance, highly prepossessing and efficacious.
[Illustration]
The next thing that happened to them was in a narrow part of the sea, which
was so entirely full of fishes that the boat could go on no farther: so
they remained there about six weeks, till they had eaten nearly all the
fishes, which were soles, and all ready-cooked, and covered with
shrimp-sauce, so that there was no trouble whatever. And as the few fishes
who remained uneaten complained of the cold, as well as of the difficulty
they had in getting any sleep on account of the extreme noise made by the
arctic bears and the tropical turnspits, which frequented the neighborhood
in great numbers, Violet most amiably knitted a small woollen frock for
several of the fishes, and Slingsby administered some opium-drops to them;
through which kindness they became quite warm, and slept soundly.
[Illustration]
Then they came to a country which was wholly covered with immense
orange-trees of a vast size, and quite full of fruit. So they all landed,
taking with them the tea-kettle, intending to gather some of the oranges,
and place them in it. But, while they were busy about this, a most
dreadfully high wind rose, and blew out most of the parrot-tail feathers
from Violet's bonnet. That, however, was nothing compared with the calamity
of the oranges falling down on their heads by millions and millions, which
thumped and bumped and bumped and thumped them all so seriously, that they
were obliged to run as hard as they could for their lives; besides that the
sound of the oranges rattling on the tea-kettle was of the most fearful and
amazing nature.
[Illustration]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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