Joshua in the exhibition

Joshua walked into the Edward Lear exhibition with his uncle and looked around at the walls that were covered with frames. At the very end of the hall was a huge portrait of Lear himself. His uncle Matt said he was going to the other room for a minute and Joshua should stay where he was. Uncle Matt wandered off. Joshua approached a frame and read the limerick that the picture portrayed.

“There was an old person of Fife,

Who was greatly disgusted with life;

They sang him a ballad. And fed him on salad,

Which cured that old person of Fife. By Edward Lear.”

What a peculiar poem! Joshua thought. He looked at the illustration that Lear had drawn and then at a sign: DO NOT TOUCH!

Oh come on, it can’t do much harm to touch it! Joshua thought. And he reached out and laid a finger on the canvas. Immediately, his finger stuck like glue and he was spinning around, colours whirling all around him. Suddenly, he was in the picture! Joshua slapped his hands to his ears to block out a horrible sound. He remembered the limerick: ‘They sang him a Ballad.’

Sure enough, as he looked around, he saw a group of people screeching out a tune that a fat old man in front of him seemed to be enjoying. The old man was munching on a bowl of salad at the same time. Joshua spun around wildly to look for a way out. In front of him was a corridor that stretched away into the distance. He could see the gallery at the end of it. Joshua ran along it and when he reached the end, he appeared back in the gallery. Joshua grinned. Then he ran up to another frame. It said:

 ‘There was an old person of Dover

Who rushed through a field of blue clover;

But some very large bees, stung his nose and his knees,

So he very soon went back to Dover.’

Joshua reached out his hand and put it on the picture. It stuck and he whizzed through the air till he landed in a blue field. There was screaming and he spun around. A man was being chased through the field by a swarm of bees. Suddenly, the bees spotted Joshua and chased after him instead. “Ahhhhhh!” Joshua screamed. And he ran all the way down the corridor and back into the gallery. Joshua was excited. He was loving it. So he ran up to the portrait of Edward Lear and was about to put his finger on it when he heard someone shout. He whizzed around. A fat old security guard was running up to him, waving his cane!

“Oi! You! Come here boy! Don’t you dare touch that painting! Can you not read the signs?” He shouted.

Bu Joshua did the very thing that I hope you would NEVER do. He reached out his hand, stuck his tongue out at the guard and touched the painting. The last thing he heard was the man yelling stop. Joshua whizzed around for a minute and landed with a thump in the painting.

“Hello Mr Lear.” Joshua greeted him cheerfully.

“Oh my goodness me!” Lear exclaimed. “How did you get in here?”

“Magic, probably.” He replied.  

Joshua and Edward Lear chatted for a few minutes till Joshua got bored. He said goodbye and rushed down the corridor to the gallery. As he appeared again, the security guard spotted him and ran up, fuming but confused. He grabbed Joshua hard by the arm and shoved him out the Museum and onto the street.

“And don’t come back!” Shouted the guard. He turned back inside, scratching his head.

Joshua grinned. He intended to come back the very next day, and enter more paintings.

                                                          The End

Written by Lily, I hope you liked it!


(The limericks in this story were written by Edward Lear, a British poet, not by me)