Volume 147 — BARBARA'S BIRTHDAY BEAR.

Barbara's birthday comes once a year, And Barbara's age you may surely know If into the toy-box depths you'll peer And count the Teddy-bears all in a row. For by Barbara's law, which we all obey, She claims each year, as the birthday-due That her loyal subjects must cheerfully pay, A new Teddy-bear for the toy-box Zoo. Some of them growl and some of them squeak, And one can play on a rub-a-dub drum, But till Barbara's birthday last Wednesday week Not one of the Teddy-bears was dumb. The latest addition to Barbara's bears Was a splendid fellow when well displayed In one of the smallest of nursery chairs, And his label declared he was "English made." Barbara called him her "bestest bear," But he tumbled soon from this place of pride; For she squeezed him here and she pounded him there, And "Daddy, he doesn't growl," she cried. Barbara shook him and flung him down; She turned her back and refused to play; And to every argument said with a frown, "He's my worstest bear; he can go away." We took him back, and we asked instead For "A bear like this, that can growl, you see;" But the shopman smiled and he darkly said, "All growls are made, Sir, in Germany."[1]