Prince Curlilocks remarked one day
To Princess Dimplecheek,
'I haven't had a real good play
For more than 'most a week.'

Said Princess Dimplecheek, 'My dear,
Your majesty forgets--
This morning we played grenadier
With grandpa's epaulets.

'And yesterday we sailed to Spain--
We both were pirates bold,
And braved the wild and raging main
To seek for hidden gold.'

'True,' said the prince; 'I mind me well--
Right hardily we fought,
And stormed a massive citadel
To gain the prize we sought.

'But if your ladyship agrees,
Methinks we'll go upstairs
And build a waste of arctic seas,
And we'll be polar bears.'

'Yes, if you'll promise not to bite,'
Fair Dimplecheek replied,
Already half-way up the flight,
His highness by her side.

'Princess, on that far window-seat,
Go, sit thee down and wait,
While I ask nursie for a sheet,
Or maybe six or eight.'

A pile of sheets his highness brought.
'Dear princess, pray take these;
Although our path with danger's fraught,
We'll reach the polar seas.'

Two furry rugs his lordship bore,
Two pairs of mittens white;
He threw them on the nursery floor
And shouted with delight.

He spread those sheets--the funny boy--
O'er table, floor, and chair.
'Princess,' said he, 'don't you enjoy
This frosty, bracing air?

'These snowy sheets are fields of ice,
This is an iceberg grim.'
'Yes, dear, I think it's very nice,'
She said, and smiled at him.

And then they donned the rugs of fur,
The mittens, too, they wore;
And Curlilocks remarked to her,
'Now you must roar and roar.'

Dimplecheek looked out from the cowl
Formed by her furry rug.
'I'm 'fraid of bears that only growl--
I like the kind that hug.'