Whatever our faults, we can always engage
That no fancy or fable shall sully our page,
    So take note of what follows, I beg.
This creature so grand and august in its age,
    In its youth is hatched out of an egg.

    

And oft in some far Coptic town
The Missionary sits him down
       To breakfast by the Nile:
The heart beneath his priestly gown
       Is innocent of guile;

    

When suddenly the rigid frown
Of Panic is observed to drown
    His customary smile.

    

Why does he start and leap amain,

    

And scour the sandy Libyan plain

    

Like one that wants to catch a train,

    

Or wrestles with internal pain?

    

Because he finds his egg contain—
Green, hungry, horrible and plain—
    An Infant Crocodile.