E-text prepared by Richard Tonsing, David Edwards,
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
()
from page images generously made available by
Internet Archive
(https://archive.org)
| Note: | Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/gambollingwithga00dunhiala |
I WOULDN’T ROOST IN A CHERRY TREE
GAMBOLLING WITH GALATEA: A BUCOLIC ROMANCE
Preliminary and Confidential
Fair reader (and unfair one, ofeither sex), I pray you be notdismayed by the profundityof this discourse. Doubtlessthere are some light-mindedobservers who would have seen in the naturalphenomena herein recorded the very quintessenceof humor, the apotheosis of the comical.Such pretenders to scientific and literary eminencewould entertain the same view of thenoble Titanotherium Robustum, or the sublimeStegosaurus Ungulatus. They would have castmerry doubts upon the improving conversationbetween Balaam and his Ass; ridiculed thepsychic resources of the Birds of St. Francisd’Assisi; scoffed at the gratitude of Æsop’sviiiLion; denied the acumen of the JumpingFrog of Calaveras; yea, and presumed to say“scat” to the sacred Cat of Bubastis.
Fair reader (or unfair one), be warned againstall such triflers with the important truths ofnature. Life is earnest. Turn the page—read,ponder, and be wise.