How wicked we are, and how good they were then!
They kept at arm's length those detestable men;
What an era of virtue she lived in!--but stay--
Were the men all such rogues in Aunt Tabitha's day?
If the men _were_ so wicked--I'll ask my papa
How he dared to propose to my darling mamma?
Was he like the rest of them? Goodness! who knows?
And what shall _I_ say if a wretch should propose?
I am thinking if aunt knew so little of sin,
What a wonder Aunt Tabitha's _aunt_ must have been!
And her _grand-aunt_--it scares me--how shockingly sad
That we girls of to-day are so frightfully bad!
A martyr will save us, and nothing else can;
Let _me_ perish to rescue some wretched young man
Though when to the altar a victim I go,
Aunt Tabitha'll tell me _she_ never did so!
LITTLE ORPHANT ANNIE.
BY JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY.
Little Orphant Annie's come to our house to stay
An' wash the cups and saucers up, and brush the crumbs away,
An' shoo the chickens off the porch, an' dust the hearth an' sweep,
An' make the fire, an' bake the bread' an' earn her board-an'-keep;
An' all us other children, when the supper things is done,
We set around the kitchen fire an' has the mostest fun
A-list'nin' to the witch tales 'at Annie tells about,
An' the gobble-uns 'at gits you--Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!
Onc't they was a little boy wouldn't say his prayers,
An' when he went to bed at night, away upstairs,
His Mammy heered him holler, an' his daddy heered him bawl,
An' when they turn't the kivvers down, he wasn't there at all!
An' they seeked him in the rafter-room, an' cubby-hole, an' press,
An' seeked him up the chimbly-flue, an' ever'wheres, I guess;
But all they ever found was thist his pants an' roundabout,
An' the gobble-uns'll git you--Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!
An' one time a little girl 'ud allus laugh an' grin,
An' make fun of ever' one, an' all her blood an' kin;
An' onc't, when they was "company," an' ole folks was there,
She mocked 'em an' shocked 'em, an' said she didn't care!
An' thist as she kicked her heels, an' turn't to run an' hide,
They was two great big black things a-standin' by her side,
An' they snatched her through the ceilin' 'fore she knowed what
she's about!
An' the gobble-uns'll git you--Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!
An' Little Orphant Annie says, when the blaze is blue,
An' the lamp wick sputters, an' the wind goes _woo-oo!_
An' you hear the crickets quit, an' the moon is gray,
An' the lightnin'-bugs in dew is all squenched away,--
You better mind yer parents, an' yer teachers fond an' dear,
An' churish them 'at loves you, an' dry the orphant's tear,
An' he'p the pore an' needy ones 'at clusters all about,
Er the gobble-uns'll get you--Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!
THE LIMITATIONS OF YOUTH.
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