Gobbles

by Marin Iorda (1901-1972); N. Batzaria (1874-1952)

Gobbles is a black boot now,
On his stool he plies for fare.
Everything he’s tried so far
Ended up in bleak despair.

As he sits twiddling his thumbs,
There’s his first chance to get paid:
“Shine ‘em bright an’ on the double
If you be black boot by trade,”

Says a man all dressed in white,
Who starts reading… What? You’ve guessed!
It’s the very sheet you’re reading,
It’s the mag’zine you love best.

And he’s laughing as he reads,
While our hero shines away,
“Well, I never! That’s so funny!,”
Gobbles hears the client say,

And he looks up from his job.
When the mag’zine meets his eye,
He’s so overjoyed he’s jumping
Off his stool. He jumps up high.

He is trying hard to read it –
“Hey, this stuff is great! I say!” –
And he wields his brush at random,
Brushing each and every way.

Gobbles giggles as he’s brushing,
At his job he’s most astute.
When he’s finished half the business,
He asks for the other foot.

Have a look now at the man,
He is blackened to his knees,
He is speechless, he is stunned
When he looks down and he sees.

“What’s that, boy?,” he yells at Gobbles
As he boxes both his ears.
Gobbles laughs as he retorts,
“You’ve got top boots, it appears.”

N. BATZARIA (“Old Nae”), a great storyteller, had an adventurous life: a participant in the Young Turks’ revolution, he was – as a senator and minister of the Ottoman Empire – a signatory of the London Peace Treaty (1913) that brought the First Balkan War to an end. He became a senator in Romania, and died in a communist camp.

Marin IORDA (aka Iordache), a film and stage director and set designer, actor, screenwriter, and cartoonist, was cofounder, with Batzaria, of the Children’s Morning magazine in 1924. Together they created the zany, sometimes grotesque, Haplea (Gobbles) family (1928), made into the first Romanian animated film in the same year – click here to see fragment (click on “Haplea”).

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THE Camel’s hump

THE Camel’s hump is an ugly lump
Which well you may see at the Zoo;
But uglier yet is the hump we get
From having too little to do.

Kiddies and grown-ups too-oo-oo,
If we haven’t enough to do-oo-oo,
We get the hump
Cameelious hump
The hump that is black and blue!

We climb out of bed with a frouzly head
And a snarly-yarly voice.
We shiver and scowl and we grunt and we growl
At our bath and our boots and our toys;

And there ought to be a corner for me
(And I know there is one for you)
When we get the hump
Cameelious hump
The hump that is black and blue!

The cure for this ill is not to sit still,
Or frowst with a book by the fire;
But to take a large hoe and a shovel also,
And dig till you gently perspire;

And then you will find that the sun and the wind.
And the Djinn of the Garden too,
Have lifted the hump
The horrible hump
The hump that is black and blue!

I get it as well as you-oo-oo
If I haven’t enough to do-oo-oo
We all get hump
Cameelious hump
Kiddies and grown-ups too!

From HOW THE CAMEL GOT HIS HUMP

HOW THE CAMEL GOT HIS HUMP

Project Gutenberg

Hansel and Gretel

Hambone

C I T I N E R A R I E S : Children’s Discovery Museum: The Dream of a King

How Many Seconds in a Minute

by Christina Rosetti

How many seconds in a minute?
Sixty, and no more in it.

How many minutes in an hour?
Sixty for sun and shower.

How many hours in a day?
Twenty-four for work and play.

How many days in a week?
Seven both to hear and speak.

How many weeks in a month?
Four, as the swift moon runn’th.

How many months in a year?
Twelve the almanac makes clear.

How many years in an age?
One hundred says the sage.

How many ages in time?
No one knows the rhyme.

Happy Thought

by Robert Louis Stevenson

The world is so full of a number of things,
I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.

Hard Knock Life

Music by Charles Strouse
Lyrics by Martin Charnin

[ORPHANS]
It’s the hard-knock life for us!
It’s the hard-knock life for us!

[ANNIE]
‘Steada treated,

[ORPHANS]
We get tricked!

[ANNIE]
‘Steada kisses,

[ORPHANS]
We get kicked!

[ALL]
It’s the hard-knock life!
Got no folks to speak of, so,
It’s the hard-knock row we how!

[ANNIE]
Cotton blankets,

[ORPHANS]
‘Steada of wool!

[ANNIE]
Empty Bellies

[ORPHANS]
‘Steada of full!

[ALL]
It’s the hard-knock life!

[ANNIE]
Don’t if feel like the wind is always howl’n?

[KATE AND TESSIE]
Don’t it seem like there’s never any light!

[DUFFY AND JULY]
Once a day, don’t you wanna throw the towel in?

[MOLLY AND PEPPER]
It’s easier than puttin’ up a fight.

[ANNIE]
No one’s there when your dreams at night get creepy!
No one cares if you grow…of if you shrink!
No one dries when your eyes get wet an’ weepy!

[ALL]
From all the cryin’ you would think this place’s a sink!
Ohhhh!!!!!!!
Empty belly life!
Rotten smelly life!
Full of sorrow life!
No tomorrow life!

[MOLLY]
Santa Claus we never see

[ANNIE]
Santa Claus, what’s that?
Who’s he?

[ALL]
No one cares for you a smidge
When you’re in an orphanage!

[MOLLY]
(Making a whistling sound and imitating Miss. Hannigan)
You’ll stay up till this dump shines
like the top of the Chrysler Building.

[ORPHANS]
Yank the whiskers from her chin
Jab her with a safety Pin
Make her drink a mickey finn
I love you, Miss Hannigan

[MOLLY]
(whistle) Get to work!
(whistle) Strip them beds!
(whistle) I said get to work!

[ALL]
It’s the hard-knock life for us
It’s the hard-knock life for us
No one cares for you a smidge
When your in an orphanage
It’s the hard-knock life
It’s the hard-knock life
It’s the hard-knock life!

When the cabin port-holes are dark and green…

by Rudyard Kipling

WHEN the cabin port-holes are dark and green
Because of the seas outside;
When the ship goes wop (with a wiggle between)
And the steward falls into the soup-tureen,
And the trunks begin to slide;
When Nursey lies on the floor in a heap,
And Mummy tells you to let her sleep,
And you aren’t waked or washed or dressed,
Why, then you will know (if you haven’t guessed)
You’re “Fifty North and Forty West!

From JUST SO STORIES: How the Whale got his Throat