Ham, Shem, and Japhet went a-sailing in the Ark,
With all the kinds of animals that grunt and squeak and bark,
All the birds and beasts and things the world has ever known,
And Ham, Shem, and Japhet chose pets to be their own.
Ham chose an elephant, Shem chose a whale,
Japhet chose a little mouse with only half a tail;
Ham and Shem had each a bird with feathers on his forehead,
Japhet had a beetle; Mrs. Noah cried "How horrid!"
Ham got a unicorn, Shem a shiny dove,
Japhet, just a lonely toad that nobody would love;
Ham picked the white puppy, Shem picked the brown,
Japhet picked the spotty one that they were going to drown.
Notes
From ALL THE OTHER CHILDREN, by Cicely Fox Smith, published by Methuen & Co., London, UK, © 1933, p. 1.
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Noah of Old three babies had...
From guest Rob Bailey (contact)
My father was from New Zealand and in the early 1900 his mother taught him poetry one of which he used to recite to us children was. "who was Japhet's father" it was about this person tryong to explain the relations of son-father to a person called Hodge and finishes... "Who's Japhet's father, not I know, why, Tom Long-Smith the doctor!" Does anyone know it or remember any thing of it?
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