Jamie In The Garden
How is a little boy to know
About these berries all,
That ripen all the summer through,
From spring-time until fall?
I must not eat them till they’re ripe,
I know that very well;
But each kind ripens di erently,
So how am I to tell?
Though strawberries and raspberries,
When ripe, are glowing red,
Red blackberries I must not touch,
Mamma has lately said.
And though no one of these is fit
To touch when it is green,
Ripe gooseberries, as green as grass,
At Grandpapa’s I’ve seen.
And peas are green when they are ripe;
Some kinds of apples too.
But they’re not berries; neither are
These currants, it is true.
These currants, now! why, some are red,
And some are brilliant green.
“Don’t eat unripe ones!” said Mamma.
But which ones did she mean?
To disobey her would be wrong.
To leave them I am loath.
I really can’t find out, unless—
Unless I eat them both!
[He eats them both.]
Somebody’s Boy (Not Mine)
When he was up he cried to get down,
And when he was in he cried to get out;
And no little boy in Boston town
Was ever so ready to fret and pout.
Poutsy, oh!
And fretsy, oh!
And spend the whole day in a petsy, oh!
And what shall we do to this bad little man,
But scold him as hard as we possibly can!
When he was cold he cried to be warm,
And when he was warm he cried to be cold;
And all the morning ’twas scold and storm,
And all the evening ’twas storm and scold.
Stormy, oh!
And scoldy, oh!
And never do what he was toldy, oh!
And what shall we do to this bad little man,
But scold him as hard as we possibly can!
Bogy
His eyes are green and his nose is brown,
His feet go up and his head goes down,
And so he goes galloping through the town,
The king of the Hobbledygoblins.
His heels stick out and his toes stick in,
He wears his mustaches upon his chin,
And he glares about with a horrible grin,
The king of the Hobbledygoblins.
No naughty boys can escape his eyes;
He clutches them, ‘spite of their tears and sighs,
And away at a terrible pace he hies
To his castle of Killemaneetem;
There he shuts them up under lock and key,
And feeds them on blacking and grasshopper tea,
And if ever they try to get out, you see,
Why, this is the way he’ll treat ’em.
[Here Mamma may toss the little boy up in the air, or shake
him, or tickle his little chin, whichever he likes best.]
Now, Johnny and Tommy, you’d better look out!
All day you’ve done nothing but quarrel and pout,
And nobody knows what it’s all about,
But it gives me a great deal of pain, dears.
So, Johnny and Tommy, be good, I pray,
Or the king will be after you some fine day,
And o to his castle he’ll whisk you away,
And we never shall see you again, dears!
The Mermaidens
The little white mermaidens live in the sea,
In a palace of silver and gold;
And their neat little tails are all covered with scales,
Most beautiful for to behold.
On wild white horses they ride, they ride,
And in chairs of pink coral they sit;
They swim all the night, with a smile of delight,
And never feel tired a bit.
The Phrisky Phrog
Now list, oh! list to the piteous tale
Of the Phrisky Phrog and the Sylvan Snayle;
Of their lives and their loves, their joys and their woes,
And all about them that any one knows.
The Phrog lived down in a grewsome bog,
The Snayle in a hole in the end of a log;
And they loved each other so fond and true,
They didn’t know what in the world to do.
For the Snayle declared ’twas too cold and damp
For a lady to live in a grewsome swamp;
While her lover replied, that a hole in a log
Was no possible place for a Phrisky Phrog.
“Come down! come down, my beautiful Snayle!
With your helegant horns and your tremulous tail;
Come down to my bower in the blossomy bog,
And be happy with me,” said the Phrisky Phrog.
“Come up, come up, to my home so sweet,
Where there’s plenty to drink, and the same to eat;
Come up where the cabbages bloom in the vale,
And be happy with me,” said the Sylvan Snayle.
But he wouldn’t come, and she wouldn’t go,
And so they could never be married, you know;
Though they loved each other so fond and true,
They didn’t know what in the world to do.
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