[Illustration: “And how they chased those twenty mules, and punctured well their hide!”] A SILENT SENTINEL Whene’er a 20-Mule-Team Brave Was wearied with the fray, He rested in a Borax ring To keep the bugs away. But if perchance a single bug Had crossed the line to harm him, He would have known it instantly; The ring would have alarmed him! [Illustration: “He rested in a Borax ring to keep the bugs away.”] A RATHER STICKY EXPERIENCE One day, within a grove of spruce, They gathered gum to chew, But, oh! it was so sticky that It acted quite like glue! They could not separate their teeth, However hard they tried, Till with a tooth-brush, smartly used, Some Borax they applied. So on a board they wrote a sign, And tacked it to a tree, Right in the middle of the grove Where everyone could see. It said: “There’s nothing quite so good With which to brush the teeth, As 20-Mule-Team-Borax. Yours,” And signed their names beneath. [Illustration: “One day, within a grove of spruce, they gathered gum to chew.”] A CASE OF CHICKEN-POX A mule broke out with chicken-pox— Broke out his tent, you see, And so exposed the other mules That chanced around to be. And did he spread the dire disease? Not he, the precious scamp! They scattered Borax everywhere To disinfect the camp. [Illustration: “A mule broke out with chicken-pox—broke out his tent, you see.”] A FUNNY INCIDENT And so these mules from place to place, Did wander in and out, Adventures meeting everywhere, With laughter and with shout; Suppressing filth and doing good To all they chanced to meet, Except of course the grimy Imps, Who always met defeat. One day these warriors chanced upon A dirty, ill-kept mule, Out in a pasture all alone, Which plot he seemed to rule. “We’ll clean him up!” the Captain said. “He needs a good shampoo; And so we’ll show him for his good, What Borax wash will do!”