Volume 2 — The Roosevelt Bears go FISHING

When the Roosevelt Bears had paid their fine

For the mischief done and the monkey shine,

They said good-bye to the big giraffe

And told him his neck was too long by half;

And asked the time it took his food

To reach his body from where he chewed;

And why he held his head so high,

And the size of collars he had to buy;

And why he was neither round nor square;

But the old giraffe didn’t seem to care;

He wagged his tail and winked his eye

And nodded his head to say good-bye.

When they quit the Zoo and got outside,

“Let us take a train for a little ride;

I’m tired of town and want to see

A farm or stream,” said TEDDY-B.

CXXVIIISo a train they took without the fare,

For where it went they didn’t care.

When “Tickets, please,” the conductor said,

TEDDY-G began to scratch his head

And to think up names of towns he knew,

Like Hoboken and Kalamazoo;

But when “Tickets, please,” he said again,

TEDDY-G got busy with a ten

And said, “Take this for your railway pay

And stop the train some time to-day

Where fishing’s good if you go that way.”

The conductor asked them questions strange

About their plans as he gave them change

And slips of paper with holes punched through;

He said a fishing stream he knew;

He’d stop the train at any rate

And show them where to buy some bait

And fishing poles and hook and line

And a jolly inn to sleep and dine.

They reached the place that day at two,

And said good-bye to the railroad crew,

CXXIX

Copyright, 1907, by Edward Stern & Co., Inc. “They met a lad on his way from school, Whom they stopped to question about a rule.”

CXXXAnd went by a path up a mountain ridge

As the train went on across a bridge.

They found the place and got fitted out

With six poles apiece both long and stout,

And bait enough and lines and hooks

To fish a year in a dozen brooks.

For said TEDDY-G, “If fishing’s play

Then I want enough, for I mean to stay

Right by the game for at least a week

Until every fish that’s in the creek

Is caught and deemed and cooked and ate

Or cut up in pieces to use for bait.”

So down their rods and lines they took

To the stream below to try their luck.

Of all the fishing that was ever done

By Izaak Walton or his eldest son,

Or by boys who fish with pins for hooks,

That we read about in the picture books,

Or for salmon trout which weigh a ton

That they say are caught in Oregon,

CXXXI

Or for shad in the River Delaware,

Or for pike or black bass anywhere,

The fish that day caught by the Bears

Would take first prizes at all the fairs;

And the way they caught them left and right,

And the way they coaxed the fish to bite,

And the way they tossed the fish in air,

Landing in trees and everywhere,

And the way they made the chipmunks run,

The fish, themselves, enjoyed the fun.

For one fish spoke, vows TEDDY-G,

A great big pounder, two or three,

And said he wouldn’t miss the game

Even if he never lived again.

“A sport,” he said, “like TEDDY-G,

Is the kind that fishes love to see.”

CXXXII

TEDDY-G got his line caught in a tree

And climbed up on high to get it free

When a ’possum called down from above,

“If you come up here you’ll get a shove

Which will toss you off and break your head

And put you fifteen weeks in bed.”

But TEDDY-G just shook with glee

And said, “I’ll come right up to see.”

The ’possum scared and trembled so

He fell off the limb and down below

Where TEDDY-B broke an ugly fall

By catching him like a rubber ball.

They fed that ’possum fishes eight

And gave him hook and line and bait

And told him stories about the Zoo

And the things they let the monkeys do.

CXXXIII

They met a man by the stream that day

Who has fished for a hundred years they say,

In ocean, river, creek and pond,

And mountain brook and lake beyond,

With statesmen bold and actors gay,

And farmer lads found by the way.

CXXXIVHe told them stories of fish he’d caught,

And when fish were few, of fish he’d bought.

And then had talked of this big land

And of men he knew on every hand:

The true to love and those to hate

Who fish for gain with stolen bait.

He told them how to have most fun

When they struck the town of Washington;

“Because,” he said, “though I’m on the shelf,

I had some fun there once myself.”

TEDDY-B said he would like to know

How near a Roosevelt Bear could go

To the Capitol or Monument

Without being shot by the President.

But the man replied, “Trout-fishing’s fine,

But shooting bears isn’t in my line.

Take my advice and take your gun

When you turn your steps towards Washington.”

They shook his hand both long and tight

And said they’d leave that very night.

They could get a train, they said, at four

For Washington and Baltimore.

CXXXV

They tramped along a country pike

And wished for horses, train or bike,

Till they met a lad on his way from school,

Whom they stopped to question about a rule

To multiply and square and add,

And what teachers did with lessons bad,

And who made spelling and what ’twas for,

And the day and hour of the next big war,

And what athletics were all about,

And where figures go when you rub them out,

And why the moon isn’t always round,

And the difference between a noise and sound,

And on a fence, how long ’twould take

To rest an hour or a dinner bake,

And how things inside the earth were done,

But the lad couldn’t answer a single one.

Said TEDDY-G: “If it doesn’t rain,

And you’ll tell us where to get a train

And the fare to pay and how long the run

From the place you name to Washington,

CXXXVIAnd your age and weight and greatest height,

And two bears you know that never bite,

I’ll give you a dollar, quick as wink,

And let you have it before you think.”

Though he never learned this dollar trick

The lad was bright and he answered quick,

And they said good-bye and it didn’t rain

Till they stepped on board their Pullman train.

Said TEDDY-G, as he lit his pipe,

And bought some apples red and ripe,

And settled down in an easy seat

With a resting-place for both his feet,

“I’m tired of clothes; I’m tired of fun;

When I see the town of Washington

I’m off again for the woolly West;

I like the mountains much the best;

I want to live as free as air;

I’m satisfied to be a bear.”

CXXXVII“But you forget,” said TEDDY-B,

“That all these things we came East to see

Were made by the brains of every clime

To keep folks working all the time.”

“That’s all right,” said TEDDY-G,

“They can work ahead, but as for me

I don’t believe that bears were made

To be busy always at a trade.”

CXXXIX