The Best of Archy and Mehitabel by Don Marquis Read Free Book Online

have been
    talking to a french cockroach
    who has just returned
    from there traveling all the
    way in a third class
    compartment he says there is no
    hope for insect or man in
    the league of nations
    what prestige it ever had is gone
    and it never had any
    the idea of one great brotherhood
    of men and insects on earth
    is very attractive to me
    but mehitabel the cat
    says i am a communist an
    anarchist and a socialist
    she has been shocked to the soul
    she says by what the
    revolutionists did here during
    the revolution
    i am always the aristocrat archy
    she said i may go and play
    around montmartre and that sort
    of thing and in fact i was
    playing up there with francy last
    night but i am always the lady
    in spite of my little larks
    toujours gai archy and toujours
    the lady that is my motto in
    spite of
    ups and downs
    what they did to us aristocrats
    at the time of the revolution
    was a plenty archy
    it makes my heart bleed
    to see signs of it all
    over town those poor
    dear duchesses that got it
    in the neck i can sympathize
    with them archy i may not
    look it now but i come of a
    royal race myself
    i have come down in the world
    but wotthehell archy wotthehell
    jamais triste archy jamais triste
    that is my motto
    always the lady and always
    out for a good time
    francy and i lapped up
    a demi of beer in a joint
    up on the butte last night
    that an american tourist
    poured out for us
    and everybody laughed and it
    got to be the fashion up there
    to feed beer to us cats
    i did not get a vulgar souse
    archy no lady gets a vulgar
    souse wotthehell i hope i am above
    all vulgarity but i did get a
    little bit lit up
    and francy did too we came
    down and got on top of the
    new morgue and sang and did
    dances there
    francy seems to see
    something attractive about
    morgues when he gets lit up
    the old morgue he says was
    a more romantic morgue but
    vandal hands have torn it down
    but wotthehell archy this one
    will do to dance on
    francy is showing me a side
    paris he says tourists don t often
    get a look at he has a little
    love nest down in the
    catacombs where
    he and i are living now
    he and i go down there
    and do the tango amongst the
    bones he is really a most
    entertaining and agreeable
    companion archy and he has some
    very quaint ideas he is busy now
    writing a poem about
    us two cats filled with beer
    dancing among the bones
    sometimes i think francy
    is a little morbid
    when i see these lovely old places
    that us aristocrats built archy
    in the hands of the bourgeois it
    makes me almost wild
    but i try to bear up i try
    to bear up i find agreeable
    companions and put a good face
    on it toujours gai that is my
    motto toujours gai
    francy is a little bit done up
    today he tried to steal a
    partridge out of a frying
    pan in a joint up on the butte
    we went back there for more beer
    after our party
    at the morgue
    and the cook beaned him with
    a bottle poor francy i
    should hate to lose him
    but something tells me i should
    not stay a widow long
    there is something in the air
    of paris archy
    that makes one young again
    there s more than one
    dance in the old dame yet
    and with these words she
    put her tail in the air and
    capered off down the alley
    i am afraid we shall never
    get mehitabel back to america
    archy

the return of archy
    where have i been so long
    you ask me
    i have been going up
    and down like the devil
    seeking what i might devour
    i am hungry always hungry
    and in the end i shall
    eat everything
    all the world shall come at
    last to the multitudinous maws
    of insects
    a civilization perishes
    before the tireless teeth
    of little little germs
    ha ha i have thrown off the mask
    at last
    you thought i was only
    an archy
    but i am more than that
    i am anarchy
    where have i been you ask
    i have been organizing the insects

    organizing the ants the worms the wasps the bees for a revolt against mankind
    the ants the worms the wasps
    the bees the cockroaches
    the mosquitoes
    for a revolt against mankind
    i have