Plain Jane | Page 3

she had seen.

Jane wished Mama had let them go
And see this cattle fair and
show.
She almost thought it would be fun
To go alone, as Ann had
done.
"'Twill be her fault, if I _do_ go;
_She_ made me want to see
the show.
Mama will not suspect the plan
Because I told her about
Ann,"
She said, as she decided on it,
And went to fetch her beaver
bonnet.
Betsy the maid was busy, so
Nobody saw Miss Janie go.

Prim and particular and neat
She minced along the village street,

And safely reached the village green
Unnoticed, and in fact unseen.

Once there, Miss Jane, I grieve to say,
Behaved in quite a naughty
way!
--She even rode a wooden horse,
Though with propriety, of
course;
She bought some sweetmeats at a stall

And then sat down
and ate them all;
She saw the clowns and acrobats,
And the
performing dogs and cats.
She thought them very clever, yet
The
pig-faced lady was her pet!
[Illustration: "_With propriety_"]

[Illustration: "_A woman saw her tears_"]
Soon it grew dark, and little Jane
Began to feel some drops of rain;

Her gown would spot, if it got wet;
And what a whipping she would
get
If kind Mama could ferret out
What her dear child had been
about.
If she got wet, they'd ask her "Why?"--
And here poor Jane
began to cry.
A woman saw her tears--and saw
The pretty necklace
which she wore.
"Come, come!" she said, "my little Miss,
Don't
spoil your pretty eyes like this;
If you're afraid of getting wet
Come
to my caravan, my pet,
And I'll be proud if Miss will take
A dish of
tea and slice of cake."
Jane thought the woman kind and nice,
And
so she followed her advice:
But after she had drunk her tea
She felt
as drowsy as could be,
And so, although she tried to keep
Awake,
she soon was fast asleep.
When she awoke, her head felt fit
To fall
to pieces, and to split;
Her necklace and her clothes were gone,
And
she had next to nothing on.
Her hair was short, and was--alack!
No
longer fair, but bluish black!
And she herself was--only think!

Spotted all over brown and pink!
Too scared to cry, she rose and saw

A giant, dwarf, and several more.
In fact, it soon was pretty plain

These wicked men had stolen Jane,
And meant to use her as a show,

Dressed as a "spotted child," you know.
She struggled hard to be
polite;
"Pray, sirs," she asked, "can this be right?"
"You 'old your
bloomin' row!" they said,
And rudely cuffed her on the head.
[Illustration: "'_Pray, sirs,' she asked,
'can this be right?_'"]
[Illustration: "_Quite fond of Ann_"]
When Jane's Mama at length returned,

How dreadful was the news
she learned!
Her child was gone!--And it was vain
To seek and
search and call for Jane!
They hunted for her everywhere--
They
even sought her at the fair;
But days went by, and then a week,
So
that it seemed no use to seek.
Oddly enough--Mama began
Really
to feel quite fond of Ann,
Now that there was no virtuous Jane
To

carry tales and to complain.
And Ann felt sorry for her Aunt
Altho'
she said: "I really can't
Conceive why it should cause her pain
To
lose a little pig like Jane!"
Now that Ann's Aunt was left in peace

She made excuses for her niece;
If she were noisy at her play,
She
said, "I like to see her gay."
And if she grew a trifle wild,
She only
shook her head and smiled.
When Ann's Papa returned, one day,

And came to fetch his child away,
Mama was grieved to lose her
niece,
And proffered her a guinea-piece,
Saying: "You must stay
longer, when
You come to visit me again."
Now all this time, poor
Jane, we know,
Was made a laughing-stock and show.
They told
her, did she dare explain
That she was only little Jane,
And not a
spotted girl at all,
They'd beat her till she couldn't crawl.
She had to
wait on all the rest,
And had to do her very best;
[Illustration: "_Proffered her a guinea-piece_"]
[Illustration: "_She had to wait on all the rest_"]
So that, she sometimes quite forgot
Whether her back was straight or
not!
And even, so the story goes,
Sometimes forgot to point her toes!

Jane found the children in the van
Were infinitely worse than Ann;

They punched her head and tore her hair,
And pinched and nipped
her everywhere,
And when she said, "A little child
Ought to be
tractable and mild!"
They only made an ugly face,
And pinched her
in another place.
After a time this seemed to teach
Jane it was better
not to preach:
And even now and then, she would
Forget that she
was very good.
She wished it had not been her plan

Always to tell
Mama of Ann.
After two months had passed away,
She even might
be heard to say
That she had been a spiteful cat
To treat her Cousin
Ann like that!
Now Jane's good parents went to stay
With Ann's
Papa one autumn day;
And while they both were staying there,
The
people held a kind of fair.
"Pray, brother," Jane's Mama began,
"Do
let me take your little Ann;
For she would like to see the show."

And he replied, "We all might go."
And so that afternoon they went,


And gravely passed from tent to tent;
And finally, the