. St. Nicholas [serial]. -AMNES -«AND-8HIS-S CAT8 By Margaret Johnson. Far, far away, beside the Nile,Where dwells the sacred crocodile(Nor ever wore so wide a smile The fabled fierce chimera !),The pillars and the porticosOf Nepthahs princely house arose,Three thousand years, as I suppose, Before our modern era. And there, one hot Egyptian noon,His guests, arriving late or soon, He met with welcome hearty;For Nepthah and his lady gayWere giving on this summers day,In their antique but graceful way, A little dinner-party. That was not much to them, you though he built a sphinx or twoW
. St. Nicholas [serial]. -AMNES -«AND-8HIS-S CAT8 By Margaret Johnson. Far, far away, beside the Nile,Where dwells the sacred crocodile(Nor ever wore so wide a smile The fabled fierce chimera !),The pillars and the porticosOf Nepthahs princely house arose,Three thousand years, as I suppose, Before our modern era. And there, one hot Egyptian noon,His guests, arriving late or soon, He met with welcome hearty;For Nepthah and his lady gayWere giving on this summers day,In their antique but graceful way, A little dinner-party. That was not much to them, you though he built a sphinx or twoWhen he had nothing else to do,The obelisk was quite the thing,All nicely carved with disk and guard a mansion stately. Here, one by one, the guests rode in,With curricle or bad the walking must have been,Just when the Niles receding floodHad covered all the land with mud,I leave you to conjecture! The ladies came with parasols, And chains and rings and fol-de-rols, kTJ**)\. ggg jgjggi jgj^ flit eH^T Near by were palm and tamarisk,And in their midst an obelisk The prince had bought but lately;For pyramids, along the Nile,Had been considered out of styleFor quite a long (Egyptian) while —A thousand years, perhaps, or so ; And dangling beetles by the score(A very stylish bug of yore !),And braided chignons, too, they wore,Of wondrous architecture. The men were — well, in evening dress,Of cut peculiar, I confess, 248 AMNES AND HIS CAT. 249 And, make no doubt, domestic;Each proud and splendid in a bigEgyptian kind of periwig,And on his brow, serene, unmoved,That lofty calm by kings approved, A gravity majestic. Their brows, with oil politely wet(I m glad it s not the custom yet!),With lovely garlands, too, were set, Of lotus and papyrus;And in the parlor soon they sat,Engaged in hieroglyphic chat —If we could only talk like that, How people would admire us! Meantime, by bitter feelings rent,While all within were well content,The scion of this noble hous
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Keywords: ., bookauthordodgemar, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookyear1873
