PLAIN-SPEAKING.
Reading edition
BY MARGARET EYTINGE.
A Mullingong met an Echidna one day, And he cried, "What a very odd nose! So exceedingly sharp. Why, it's funnier far Than your porcupine coat and your toes." Then most rudely he made all the echoes resound With "he-hees!" and "haw-haws!" and "ho-hoes!" The Echidna made answer, "My merry young friend, If your own comic nose you could see, Like a juvenile shovel exceedingly flat, I am sure you'd stop laughing at me; For perfectly lovely, beside it, is mine. Ho! ho! and haw! haw! and he! he!"