The Story of the Hare Who Lost his Spectacles

The House that Jack Built

Poems for Staging

(Стихотворения для постановки)

This is the house

That Jack built.

This is the corn

That lay in the house

That Jack built.

This is the rat

That ate the corn

That lay in the house

That Jack built.

This is the cat

That killed the rat

That ate the corn

That lay in the house

That Jack built.

This is the dog

That worried the cat

That killed the rat

That ate the corn

That lay in the house

That Jack built.

This is the cow

With a crumpled horn

That tossed the dog

That worried the cat

That killed the rat

That ate the corn

That lay in the house

That Jack built.

This is the maiden

All forlorn

That milked the cow

With a crumpled horn

That tossed the dog

That worried the cat

That killed the rat

That ate the corn

That lay in the house

That Jack built.

This is the story of the Hare

Who lost his spectacles.

Owl loved to rest quietly

Whilst no one was watching.

Sitting on a fence one day

He was surprised

When suddenly a kangaroo

Ran close by.

Now this may not seem strange,

But when Owl overheard

Kangaroo whisper

To no one in particular,

“The hare has lost his spectacles”,

Well, he began to wonder.

Presently, the moon appeared from behind a cloud,

And there lying on the grass was Hare,

In the stream that float by the grass – a newt,

And sitting astride a twig of a bush – a bee.

Ostensibly motionless,

The hare was trembling with excitement

For without his spectacles

He appeared completely helpless.

Where were his spectacles?

Could someone have stolen them?

Has he mislaid them?

What was he to do?

Bee wanted to help,

And thinking he had the answer began:

“You probably ate them thinking they were a carrot”.

“No”, interrupted Owl who was wise,

“I have good eye-sight, insight, and foresight,

How could an intelligent hare

Make such a silly mistake?”

But all the time Owl

Had been sitting on the fence scowling.

Kangaroo was hopping mad at this sort of a talk,

She thought herself

A far superior in intelligence to the others,

She was their leader, their guru.

She had the answer:

“Hare, you must go in search of the optician!”

But then she realized that Hare

Was completely helpless without his spectacles.

And so, Kangaroo loudly proclaimed:

“I can’t send Hare in search of anything!”

“You can, guru, you can!” shouted Newt,

“You can send him with Owl”.

But Owl had gone to sleep.

Newt knew too much

To be stopped by so small a problem.

“You can take him in your pouch”.

But, alas, Hare was much too big

To fit into Kangaroo’s pouch.

All this time it had been quite plain to Hare

That the others knew nothing about his spectacles.

And as for all their tempting ideas,

Well, Hare didn’t care.

The lost spectacles were his own affair

And, after all, Hare did have his spare a-pair

Дата добавления: 2014-12-23