The Joke Edith Nesbit Nesbit, Edith E. N. (poet; Atalanta) E. N. Illustrator Louis William Wain Wain, Louis Metadata research and editing DVPP Project Team University of Victoria Digital Victorian Periodical Poetry Project Victoria, BC, Canada

In the public domain

 Poet attribution: probably by Edith Nesbit, whose similar Atalanta poem The Dental Hospital (October 1891) was also illustrated by Wain. Wain’s illustration is entitled A Funny Story. #poetAttribution Atalanta 5 52 216–217 You ask me why I wear this grin Corrected and proofed figure and figDesc. Added figure, figDesc, and keywords. Changed "FullPage" catRef to "FullPageRotated." Re-organized change elements in descending date order. Removed catRef with target="dvpp:illustrationNone", now obsolete.
Anthropomorphic illustration of a crowd of cats gathered together in a semi-circle. Most of the cats stand on their back legs. Some cats are laughing with their front paws clasped to their stomachs. One cat holds a kitten under its arm. Another cat sits on a chair and holds its back paws up with its front paws. At the forefront of the illustration, multiple kittens sit and watch the larger cats interact. Two of the kittens at the center of the group look at each other while extending their paws. Their mouths are open as though they are vocalizing. Full-page illustration contained within a single-ruled border.