Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
Poems of Home: III. Fun for Little Folk“Max and Maurice”: Last Trick
Wilhelm Busch (1832–1908)M
When I think on your last trick.
Why must these two scalawags
Cut those gashes in the bags?
See! the farmer on his back
Carries corn off in a sack.
Scarce has he begun to travel,
When the corn runs out like gravel.
All at once he stops and cries:
“Darn it! I see where it lies!”
Ha! with what delighted eyes
Max and Maurice he espies.
Rabs! he opens wide his sack,
Shoves the rogues in—Hukepack!
It grows warm with Max and Maurice,
For to mill the farmer hurries,
“Master miller! Hallo, man!
Grind me that as quick as you can!”
“In with ’em!” Each wretched flopper
Headlong goes into the hopper.
As the farmer turns his back, he
Hears the mill go “creaky! cracky!”
Here you see the bits post mortem,
Just as Fate was pleased to sort ’em.
Master Miller’s ducks with speed
Gobbled up the coarse-grained feed.