Читать книгу The Runaway Equator, and the Strange Adventures of a Little Boy in Pursuit of It онлайн

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“Oh! gracious, no. They break the hail off the rain clouds with their hammers, and it freezes on the way down. They soon tire of that, though, so they never keep it up long. That is why you hear people say ‘Hail and Farewell.’ You have to say good-by to a hailstorm almost before you’ve had time to say hello to it.”

“I think it is very ill-mannered of the Dog Star to worry them,” said Billy.

“Oh, Dog Stars have no manners. That is very well shown in the poem I wrote about the Dog Star. Did you ever happen to hear it?”

“No,” said Billy. “I never did.”

“Well,” said Nimbus, “as nearly as I can remember it runs something like this:

“Dog Star, Dog Star, burning bright,

You can neither read nor write,

Yet you frolic just the same,

And have not a thought of shame.

“When I say: ‘Add one and one,’

You reply: ‘It can’t be done.

Sums are flat and grammar stale,

I prefer to chase my tail.’

“When I ask: ‘Who built the ark?’

You turn somersaults and bark:

Or you growl, with drooping tail,

‘Was it Jonah or the Whale?’