Carolyn Wells

The Two Bears

Prince Curlilocks remarked one day
  To Princess Dimplecheek,
"I haven't had a real good play
  For more than 'most a week."

Said Princess Dimplecheek, "My dear,
  Your majesty forgets--
This morning we played grenadier
  With grandpa's epaulets.

"And yesterday we sailed to Spain--
  We both were pirates bold,
And braved the wild and raging main
  To seek for hidden gold."

"True," said the prince; "I mind me well--
  Right hardily we fought,
And stormed a massive citadel
  To gain the prize we sought.

"But if your ladyship agrees,
  Methinks we'll go upstairs
And build a waste of arctic seas,
  And we'll be polar bears."

"Yes, if you'll promise not to bite,"
  Fair Dimplecheek replied,
Already half-way up the flight,
  His highness by her side.

"Princess, on that far window-seat,
  Go, sit thee down and wait,
While I ask nursie for a sheet,
  Or maybe six or eight."

A pile of sheets his highness brought.
  "Dear princess, pray take these;
Although our path with danger's fraught,
  We'll reach the polar seas."

Two furry rugs his lordship bore,
  Two pairs of mittens white;
He threw them on the nursery floor
  And shouted with delight.

He spread those sheets--the funny boy--
  O'er table, floor, and chair.
"Princess," said he, "don't you enjoy
  This frosty, bracing air?

"These snowy sheets are fields of ice,
  This is an iceberg grim."
"Yes, dear, I think it's very nice,"
  She said, and smiled at him.

And then they donned the rugs of fur,
  The mittens, too, they wore;
And Curlilocks remarked to her,
  "Now you must roar and roar."

Dimplecheek looked out from the cowl
  Formed by her furry rug.
"I'm 'fraid of bears that only growl--
  I like the kind that hug."