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DISCRETION

A man with a nickel,

A sword, and a sickle,

A pipe, and a paper of pins

Set out for the Niger

To capture a tiger —

And that's how my story begins.

 

When he saw the wide ocean,

He soon took a notion

’T would be nicer to stay with his friends.

So he traded his hat

For a tortoise-shell cat —

And that's how the chronicle ends.

 

[NOTES] This rhyme is about a man who thinks he will go to Africa and get a tiger. He sees the ocean and he knows it is very far to Africa. He thinks maybe it is better to stay at home where he has friends. He gives a child his hat and the child gives him a cat. This is how the story ends.

nickle—money, 5¢

sword—big knife used to fight

sickle—big knife used by farmers to cut grass

pipe—a wood bowl to put tobacco in and smoke it

niger—river in africa

tiger—large, wild, orange cat with black stripes

to begin—to start

notion—idea, thought

’t—it

to trade—to change one thing for another thing without using money

tortoise-shell—black and orange coloured cat

chronicle—story