A BATTLE ROYAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2237, 14 January 1897, Page 51

A BATTLE ROYAL.

You ought to have seen the terrible row we had in my room last nitht— The elephant plush and the calico cat and my new little pug had a fight. And though an elephant s great and strong, and a cat ha» powerful claws, My little pu« dog came out on the top with the aid of his teeth aud paws. The trouble arose in the simplest way : the cat was asleep on a chair, And the elephant plush was standing about and (miffing the cool night air, When Pug?y rushed in, as he sometimes does, for a romp on the bed with me, And tripped oa the trunk of the elephant bold, and over and over went he. He turnecf two someraaults up in the air as he tripped on the elephant's trunk, And then wont bang gatust the pussy-cat's chair with a really horrible bunk. He bunked so hard that the chair slid back with a b^Dg on the side of tho door, And thu calico cat, with a hiss and a scat, came tumbling down to the floor. And it happened as puss came tumbling down old Puggy lay down just below ; He'd tumbled right flat on his poor little back, a picture of trouble and woe — And the pu-ey kerflop catne down on top of my new little, live little pup, And then came a mighty old struggle, in which the cat was jus.t chewed all up. Pug snapped and he yawled and he rolled and he kicked, but the calico cat held fast ; And they slid over the floor in a mad embrace until, pretty ne»r the last. They cime to tha elephant made of plush, with celluloid tusks ao rare, Who silently btood, as I said before, a-sniffing thß cool night air. And of course when they rolled underneath his logs the elephant c.ime down too— And, oh ! the row, the terrible row, I'm sure would have startled you. Those three bold friends of my nursery days now got in a terrible plight, But the small live pug, with his teeth and his paws, soon had much tho beßt o f the fight. And now to-day I am gathering up from all parts of the nursery floor Small pieces of cotton and calico shreds and samples of plush galore. There are eye 3 and ears and tails and trunke from my-bed to the washstand rug That tbll of tha glorious victory that was won by my brave little pug. As for Pupgv hiinsylf, he's still romping away, and he hasn't a scar to show ; Nor does he remember, as far as I see, that terrible scene of woe. And the only effect of his fight at all is he seems to be twice as fat, Which may coins — I cannot; with certainty aay — from swallowing part of the cat. — " The Little Laureate," in Town and Country.