Dirty Beasts

“If you can get me one of those.”

At last he found an Indian gent

(He lived near Delhi, in a tent),

Who said that he would sacrifice

His pet for an enormous price

(The price demanded, if you please,

Was fifty thousand gold rupees).

The ant-eater arrived half-dead.

It looked at Roy and softly said,

“I’m famished. Do you think you could

“Please give me just a little food?

“A crust of bread, a bit of meat?

“I haven’t had a thing to eat

“In all the time I was at sea,

“For nobody looked after me.”

Roy shouted, “No! No bread or meat!

“Go find some ants! They’re what you eat!”

The starving creature crawled away.

It searched the garden night and day,

It hunted every inch of ground,

But not one single ant it found.

“Please give me food!” the creature cried.

“Go find an ant!” the boy replied.

By chance, upon that very day,

Roy’s father’s sister came to stay –

A foul old hag of eighty-three

Whose name, it seems, was Dorothy.

She said to Roy, “Come let us sit

“Out in the sun and talk a bit.”

Roy said, “I don’t believe you’ve met