Slovenly Betsy

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Illustrated by Walter Hayn
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Title: Slovenly Betsy
Author: Heinrich Hoffman
Release Date: November 24, 2006 [eBook #19915]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
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SLOVENLY BETSY***
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SLOVENLY BETSY
by

DR. HENRY HOFFMAN
With Numerous Illustrations
in Color from the
Original Designs by

Walter Hayn
[Illustration]
Applewood Books
Bedford, Massachusetts
This edition of Slovenly
Betsy was originally published in 1911.
SLOVENLY BETSY
Betsy would never wash herself
When from her bed she rose,
But
just as quickly as she could
She hurried on her clothes.
To keep her
clothes all nice and clean
Miss Betsy took no pains;
In holes her
stockings always were,
Her dresses filled with stains.
Sometimes
she went day after day
And never combed her hair,
While little
feathers from her bed
Stuck on it here and there.
The schoolboys,
when they Betsy saw,
Would point her out, and cry,
"Oh! Betsy,
what a sight you are!
Oh! Slovenly Betsy, fie!"
One rainy day her parents went
Some pleasant friends to meet.

They took Betsy along with them,
All dressed so clean and neat.

Nice little boys and girls were there,
With whom our Betsy played,

Until of playing she grew tired,
And to the garden strayed.
Out in
the rain she danced awhile,
But 'twas not long before
Flat down she
tumbled in the mud,
And her best clothes she tore.
[Illustration]
Oh! what a sight she was, indeed,
When in the room she came;
The
guests all loudly laughed at her,
And she almost died with shame.

She turned, and to her home she ran,
And then, as here you see,
She
washed her clothes, and since has been
As neat as she could be.
[Illustration]

PHOEBE ANN, THE PROUD GIRL
This Phoebe Ann was a very proud girl,
Her nose had always an
upward curl.
[Illustration]
She thought herself better than all others beside,
And beat even the
peacock himself in pride.
[Illustration]
She thought the earth was so dirty and brown,
That never, by chance,
would she look down;
And she held up her head in the air so high

That her neck began stretching by and by.
It stretched and it stretched;
and it grew so long
That her parents thought something must be
wrong.
It stretched and stretched, and they soon began
To look up
with fear at their Phoebe Ann.
[Illustration]
They prayed her to stop her upward gaze,
But Phoebe kept on in her
old proud ways,
Until her neck had grown so long and spare
That
her head was more than her neck could bear--
And it bent to the
ground, like a willow tree,
And brought down the head of this proud
Phoebe,
Until whenever she went out a walk to take,
The boys
would shout, "Here comes a snake!"
[Illustration]
Her head got to be so heavy to drag on,
That she had to put it on a
little wagon.
So don't, my friends, hold your head too high,
Or your
neck may stretch, too, by and by.
[Illustration]
THE DREADFUL STORY OF PAULINE AND THE MATCHES

Mamma and Nurse went out one day,
And left Pauline alone at play;

Around the room she gayly sprang,
Clapp'd her hands, and danced,
and sang.
Now, on the table close at hand,
A box of matches
chanced to stand,
And kind Mamma and Nurse had told her,
That if
she touched them they would scold her.
But Pauline said, "Oh, what a
pity!
For when they burn it is so pretty;
They crackle so, and spit,
and flame;
And Mamma often burns the same.
I'll only light a
match or two
As I have often seen my mother do."
[Illustration]
When Minz and Maunz, the cats, heard this,
They said, "Oh, naughty,
naughty Miss.
Me-ow!" they cried, "Me-ow, me-o,
You'll burn to
death, if you do so.
Mamma forbids it, don't you know?"
But Pauline would not take advice,
She lit a match, it was so nice!

It crackled so, it burned so clear,--
Exactly like the picture here.
She
jumped for joy and ran about,
And was too pleased to put it out.
[Illustration]
When Minz and Maunz, the cats, saw this,
They said, "Oh, naughty,
naughty Miss!"
And rais'd their paws
And stretch'd their claws;

"'Tis very, very wrong, you know;
Me-ow, me-o, me-ow, me-o!

You will be burnt if you do so.
Mamma forbids it, don't you know?"
Now see! oh, see! a dreadful thing!
The fire has caught her apron
string:
Her apron burns, her arms, her hair;
She burns all over,
everywhere.
[Illustration]
Then how the pussy cats did mew,
What else, poor pussies, could
they do?
They screamed for help, 'twas all in vain,
So then they said,