Page:Complete Works of Lewis Carroll.djvu/812

As the sage mother with a powerful spell^[1]
  Forced each in turn its contents to express,^[2]
But ah! "imperfect is expression,"
  Some poet said, I don't care who.
If you want to know you must go elsewhere,
  One fact I can tell, if you're willing to hear,
  He never attended a Parliament Session,
  For I'm certain that if he had ever been there,
  Full quickly would he have changed his ideas,
  With the hissings, the hootings, the groans and the cheers.
  And as to his name it is pretty clear
  That it wasn't me and it wasn't you!

And so it fell upon a day,
  (That is, it never rose again)
A chick was found upon the hay,
Its little life had ebbed away.
No longer frolicsome and gay,
No longer could it run or play.
"And must we, chicken, must we part?"
Its master^[3] cried with bursting heart,
  And voice of agony and pain.
So one, whose ticket's marked "Return,"^[4]
When to the lonely roadside station
He flies in fear and perturbation,
Thinks of his home—the hissing urn—
Then runs with flying hat and hair,
And, entering, finds to his despair
  He's missed the very latest train.^[5]

1. Beak and claw.
2. Press out.
3. Probably one of the two stalwart youths.
4. The system of return tickets is an excellent one. People are conveyed, on particular days, there and back again for one fare.
5. An additional vexation would be that his "Return" ticket would be no use the next day.