Page 16 - Adventures of Peterkin Paul

" But I'll show you a feat that will startle you all, “ Now, onct; more — just suppose ill at is all loi-dq-rol.
Or my nam e's not M iltiad es Peterkin Paul, AntE Pm really Mil tildes Peterkin Paul,
¥ou robin may twitter up there in the trees,—
As £oryotf, Mr, firgok, laugh as loud as you please :
Tint what will you say i£ I jump W tryou ?
’Tis soinethii'ij', 1 fancy, my brathc-rs can't do,
Although everyone says they're so stout and so tall/'
Cried little Miltiades Peterkin Paul.

” N'ow suppose they were both of them here within call.
And that J'in not Miltiades Peterkin Paul,
But instead, for a moment, I ’m John Henry Jack."
He first draws himself up-— see, like this— aiid goei
hack;
Then he conies running up brave as can be, — but lo I
He stops right on the edge and looks round him, jusit
w , f

Y(>U those ffrfiat fellowi who didn't iJiTt tfy,
NtiUvithstantLiiig lliey'ru very much bigger than I,
But now it’s my turn, and I mean to showj^w
(If you'll wait half a minute) just what I can do,
I am not to be laughed at sirs, if 1 am small/'
Stouted little ^Miltiades Peterkin Pa'll.

But ilas ! for the sad. fate that sooti did befall
Our litLle Miltiades Peterkiiii Paul!
He went back, I should think, something like half a
mile,
To get a f^cwi start from the old roadside stile ;
Then he ran like a deer, and he jumped, and — O
look!
0 no! John Henry Jack dare nor try it at alt." He is sprawling and sputtering right in the brook I
Laughed little Miltiades Peterkin Paul.

“ Or — suppose Pm m t John Henry Jack, after all,
N!or either Miltiades P a rk in Paul;
But I'm Benjnmin Franklin this tim e} and suppose
1 should dare him to try i t — nt™ watch — here he
g o e s ."
He walks back just like this, and runs up just like
that,
But stops short at the brink, riHe can't do it, that's
flat.
O, no, brother Ben dare not try it at all! ” And thus it all happened that pride had a fall.
Laughed little Miltiades Peterkin Piui. And so did Milliard? Peterkin Paul.