[1] Copyright in Great Britain, the Colonies, and the United States of America by Charles Garvice, 1914. Dramatic and other rights reserved. THE LAND OF LET'SPRETEND BY LADY SYBIL GRANT _Painting and Drawings by_ ARTHUR RACKHAM, R.W.S. I.--LET'SPRETEND THIS country is not on the map, But sometimes, curled on Mother's lap, Or sitting in my bedtime bath, I wish that I could find the path. THERE no one's ever called a dunce, And you eat jam and cake at once, Or chocolate and lemon squash, While nobody need ever wash. MOTHERS have nothing else to do Except to kiss and cuddle you; And fathers need not "earn their bread," But stay and romp with you instead. THERE are no girls: just men and boys And mothers; _all_ the shops sell toys; Just _every one_ plays Hide and Seek, And Christmas happens twice a week. WHILE everybody has a car, Also a yacht, like Grandpapa, And lives in wigwams, tents, or huts, And owns a knife that really cuts. BUT some things you can never find, However tired you make your mind; Like other things you never know For sure--if you try ever so. JUST as: how God turns on the rain, So nobody can quite explain Exactly where the rainbows end. And so it is with Let'spretend. MY Father says that all his life With my Mamma (who is his wife) They've looked; and they are _very_ old. My father's thirty, I've been told! [Illustration: "And they are _very_ old. My father's thirty, I've been told!"] II.--SUPPOSING SUPPOSING one had been Shut up in Noah's Ark (During the flood, I mean)-- It would have been a lark! THE animals, you know, Were not as they are now; _Quite_ different long ago-- Just see this purple cow! THE lion, it seems, was pink, The bears and tigers too, While zebras had, I _think_, Most lovely stripes of blue. BUT really, I forget, For now the stripes are faint, In my own Noah's Ark set I once licked off the paint. AT least, so I am told (A stupid thing to do! But I was not so old Then--only half-past two). NOAH'S sons--just look at Ham, Japhet, of course, and Shem! I think I really am Glad I don't look like them! [Illustration: JAPHET JUST LOOK _at Ham_ OF COURSE AND _Shem_!] THEY all stand on green rings Of grass. Perhaps at night The cows and sheep and things Prowled round to steal a bite. HORRID for Shem to feel Tickling around his toes, Hoping to snatch a meal, Two hungry buffaloes! BUT think what lovely pets Noah had all for his own; Each one in double sets, And mostly quite unknown. EVEN a tame baboon!-- See, he is painted red-- Would get to know you soon And sleep upon your bed.