 | A merry-go-round of song |  |
8
THE TROUBLES OF FATHER CHRISTMAS
“For clambering down the chimneys and for clambering up again,”
Said Father Christmas on the roof, “I'm getting old, it's plain.
It suits me in a hundred ways to live upon the earth
And spend a large amount of time in planning children's mirth,
But how a builder can expect a gentleman to shoot
Down tunnels so perplexing, what with narrowness and soot,
And yet arrive without a smudge on face or nose or hand,
Is more than a magician's cat could rightly understand.
Imagine how I lose my breath, when down a yard or two,
By tugging at my oranges and crackers in a flue!
But Florences and Laurences,
And Margarets and Olivettes,
And Charlies and Horatios,
And Jims and Jacks and Jills and Joes,
Expect me, I suppose.
Here goes!
Said Father Christmas on the roof, “I'm getting old, it's plain.
It suits me in a hundred ways to live upon the earth
And spend a large amount of time in planning children's mirth,
But how a builder can expect a gentleman to shoot
Down tunnels so perplexing, what with narrowness and soot,
And yet arrive without a smudge on face or nose or hand,
Is more than a magician's cat could rightly understand.
Imagine how I lose my breath, when down a yard or two,
By tugging at my oranges and crackers in a flue!
But Florences and Laurences,
And Margarets and Olivettes,
And Charlies and Horatios,
And Jims and Jacks and Jills and Joes,
Expect me, I suppose.
Here goes!
“While children blossom in their beds, while sleep is stroking them,
I bump along the slanty roof with Japhet, Ham, and Shem;
With thirty baby elephants, with goslings and with dogs,
With various kinds of paroquets and antelopes and frogs.
No wonder that I sometimes feel, when out in snow or rain,
As though my legs were dropping off and joining on again!
No wonder that I often think my health will not allow
My body to repeat next year the work it's doing now;
For roofs are slippery and cold, and chimney-pots are tight,
And gentlemen as old as I should keep indoors at night.
But Florences and Laurences,
And Lavenders and Olivers,
And Leonards and Horatios,
And Jims and Jacks and Jills and Joes,
Expect me, I suppose.
Here goes!
I bump along the slanty roof with Japhet, Ham, and Shem;
9
With various kinds of paroquets and antelopes and frogs.
No wonder that I sometimes feel, when out in snow or rain,
As though my legs were dropping off and joining on again!
No wonder that I often think my health will not allow
My body to repeat next year the work it's doing now;
For roofs are slippery and cold, and chimney-pots are tight,
And gentlemen as old as I should keep indoors at night.
But Florences and Laurences,
And Lavenders and Olivers,
And Leonards and Horatios,
And Jims and Jacks and Jills and Joes,
Expect me, I suppose.
Here goes!
“Now here's an awkward chimney! No other Christmas friend
Of human babes would ever dream of getting past that bend,
And even I, with all my skill, can't possibly be quick
In taking down this narrow flue a rocking-horse to Dick.
Although it's heart-delighting when I reach a quiet room,
Sweet-lavendered by children lying cosy in the gloom,
And fumble for the stockings hanging long and limp and black
And hungry for the feast of toys I carry in my pack,
I cannot keep from thinking, as I scramble in the flue,
How seldom I am nicely thanked by Christopher and Sue.
But Florences and Laurences,
And Clementines and Ellalines,
And Rogers and Horatios,
And Jims and Jacks and Jills and Joes,
Expect me, I suppose.
Here goes!”
Of human babes would ever dream of getting past that bend,
And even I, with all my skill, can't possibly be quick
In taking down this narrow flue a rocking-horse to Dick.
Although it's heart-delighting when I reach a quiet room,
Sweet-lavendered by children lying cosy in the gloom,
10
And hungry for the feast of toys I carry in my pack,
I cannot keep from thinking, as I scramble in the flue,
How seldom I am nicely thanked by Christopher and Sue.
But Florences and Laurences,
And Clementines and Ellalines,
And Rogers and Horatios,
And Jims and Jacks and Jills and Joes,
Expect me, I suppose.
Here goes!”
| A merry-go-round of song | |