The Gnome

When my children were very young, I found a book of chilren's stories at a yard sale. It had the cutest poem in it and I memorized it. Unfortunately, the book went missing and I have been unable to find the name of the author anywhere. If anyone out there has this book, or knows who wrote this, please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due.

ONCE there lived a little gnome
Who had made his little home
Right down in the middle of the earth, earth, earth.

He was full of fun and frolic,
But his wife was melancholic,
and he never could divert her into mirth, mirth, mirth.

He had tried her with a monkey,
And a parrot, and a donkey,
And a pig that squealed whene'r he pulled it's tail, tail, tail.

But though he laughed himself
Into fits, the jolly elf,
Still his wifey's melancholy did not fail, fail, fail.

"I will hie me" said the gnome
"From my worthy earthy home;
I will go among the dwellings of the men, men, men.

"Something funny there must be,
That will make her say he-he!
I will find it and will bring it her again, 'gain, 'gain."

So he Traveled here and there,
And he saw the blinking bear,
And the platypool whose eyes are in his tail, tail, tail.

He saw the Linking Gloon
Who was playing the bassoon.
And the octopus a waltzing with the whale, whale, whale.

He saw the Chingo Chee,
And what a lovely sight was he
with a ringlet and a ribbon in his nose, nose, nose.

And the Baggle and the
Wog, and the Cantinuar Dog
who was throwing cotton flannel at his foes, foes, foes.

All these the little gnome
transported to his home,
and sat them down before his weeping wife, wife, wife.

But she only cried, and cried,
And she sobbywobbed and sighed
'Till she really was in danger of her life, life, life.

Oh the gnome was in despair,
And he tore his purple hair,
And he sat him down in sorrow on a stone, stone, stone.

"I, too" he said "will cry
'Till I tumble down, and die,
For I've had enough of laughing all alone, 'lone, 'lone."

His tears, they flowed away
Like a rivulet at play
With a bubble gubble rubble o'er the ground, ground, ground.

But with this his wifey saw,
She loudly cried "Haw! Haw!
Here at last is something funny you have found, found, found!"

She said "Ho! Ho! He! He!"
And she chuckled loud with glee,
And she wiped away her little husbands tears, tears, tears.

And since then, through wind, and weather,
they have said "He! He!" together
for several hundred thousand merry years, years, years!