<h2><SPAN name="PRICKLY_THORNS" id="PRICKLY_THORNS"></SPAN>PRICKLY THORNS</h2>
<p>"What kind of a blackbird are you?" asked the Yellow Dog Tramp when he
saw the bad owl who had flown down the chimney of the little monkey's
house, as I mentioned in the last story.</p>
<p>"I'm not any kind of a blackbird—I'm an owl," answered this dreadful
old bird, and he shook himself till the soot flew all over the room, and
some of it got in the Yellow Dog Tramp's eyes and made him blink. And of
course all this noise woke up the little monkey and Little Jack Rabbit,
who were sleeping upstairs, you remember.</p>
<p>"I wonder what's going on," whispered the little monkey, and he leaned
over the banisters. And just then the Yellow Dog Tramp said, "Well, you
get out of here!" and he took hold of that sooty old tooty owl and threw
him, tail first, out of the door. And then he threw a milk bottle after
him.</p>
<p>When the little rabbit and the little monkey heard what had happened,
they were very grateful to the Yellow Dog Tramp, and told him he could
sleep all next day in the sun instead of whitewashing the back fence.</p>
<p>Well, after a while, after breakfast, you know, the little bunny set off
again on his travels, and by and by, not so very far, he came to a place
where so many wild roses grew that it looked like a lovely garden.</p>
<p>"Now here is a nice place to rest," he thought, and he sat down and
opened his knapsack and took out a lollypop and was just going to bite
off the lemon top, when somebody took it right out of his paw.</p>
<p>"Ha, ha, ho, ho," laughed a trumpety kind of a voice, and when the
little bunny looked around he saw his old friend the Circus Elephant
with a bouquet of roses in his long trunk. "Here's your lollypop," said
the elephant, and he dropped the bunch of roses, for he only meant to
tease the little rabbit for a minute, you know.</p>
<p>And then he came over and sat down. But, oh dear me. He jumped up in an
awful hurry, for he had sat on the bunch of roses.</p>
<p>"Oh, dear and oh dear again," he cried, "why do lovely roses have
thorns?" and he wiped a tear from his eye with the end of his ear, and
then he sang this song:</p>
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">"Oh, why should roses red have thorns<br/></span>
<span class="i2">And pears have prickly prickles,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And Mr. Dill his glass jars fill<br/></span>
<span class="i2">With sour little pickles?"<br/></span></div>
</div>
<p>And after that my typewriter says you must wait a little while to hear
what happened next, because</p>
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">The Circus Elephant took so long<br/></span>
<span class="i0">To finish this beautiful pickle song,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">The clock struck twelve before he was through,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">The Old Red Rooster woke up and blew<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Twice six times on his big tin horn,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And nearly deafened the ears of corn.<br/></span></div>
</div>
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