the best of
all?
LITTLE MANDEVILLE
O little friends, I most rejoice
When I hear the drums
As the Circus comes,--
So Summer-time's
my special choice.
QUEEN
Summer or Winter or Spring or Fall,--
Which do you like the best of
all?
LITTLE EDITH
Apples of ruby, and pears of gold,
And grapes of blue
That the bee stings through.--
Fall--it is all that
my heart can hold!
[Illustration: "THE FAIRY QUEEN OF THE SEASONS."]
QUEEN
Soh! my lovelings and pretty dears,
You've each a favorite, it
appears,--
Summer and Winter and Spring and Fall.--
That's the
reason I send them all!
THOMAS THE PRETENDER
Tommy's alluz playin' jokes,
An' actin' up, an' foolin' folks;
An'
wunst one time he creep
In Pa's big chair, he did, one night,
An'
squint an' shut his eyes bofe tight,
An' say, "Now I 'm asleep."
An'
nen we knowed, an' Ma know' too,
He ain't asleep no more 'n you!
[Illustration]
An' wunst he clumbed on our back'fence
An' flop his arms an' nen
commence
To crow, like he's a hen;
But when he failed off, like he
done,
He didn't fool us childern none,
Ner didn't crow again.
An'
our Hired Man, as he come by,
Says, "Tom can't crow_, but he kin
_cry."
[Illustration: "PORE PA! PORE PA!"]
LITTLE DICK AND THE CLOCK
When Dicky was sick
In the night, and the clock,
As he listened,
said "TickAtty
--tick-atty--tock!"
He said that it said,
Every time
it said "Tick,"
It said "Sick," instead,
And he heard it say "Sick!"
And when it said "TickAtty
--tick-atty--tock,"
He said it said
"SickAtty
--sick-atty--sock!"
And he tried to see then,
But the
light was too dim,
Yet he heard it again--
And't was talking to him!
And then it said "SickAtty
--sick-atty--sick
You poor little
DickAtty
--Dick-atty--dock!
Have you got the hickAtties
? Hi!
send for Doc
To hurry up quick
Atty--quick-atty--quock,
And
heat a hot brickAtty
--brick-atty--brock,
[Illustration]
And rikle-ty wrap it
And clickle-ty clap it
Against his cold feetAl
-ty--weep-aty--eepaty--
There he goes, slapitTy
--slippaty--sleepaty!"
FOOL-YOUNGENS
Me an' Bert an' Minnie-Belle
Knows a joke, an' we won't tell!
No,
we don't--'cause we don't know
Why we got to laughin' so;
But we
got to laughin' so,
"We ist kep' a-laughin'.
Wind wuz blowin' in the tree--
An' wuz only ist us three
Playin'
there; an' ever' one
Ketched each other, like we done,
Squintin' up
there at the sun
Like we wuz a-laughin'.
Nothin' funny anyway;
But I laughed, an' so did they--
An' we all
three laughed, an' nen
Squint' our eyes an' laugh' again:
Ner we
didn't ist p'ten'--
We wuz shore-'nough laughin'.
[Illustration: "SQUINT' OUR EYES AN' LAUGH' AGAIN"]
"We ist laugh' an' laugh', tel Bert
Say he can't quit an' it hurt.
Nen I
howl, an' Minnie-Belle
She tear up the grass a spell
An' ist stop her
yeers an' yell
Like she'd die a-laughin'.
Never sich fool-youngens yit!
Nothin' funny,--not a bit!--
But we
laugh' so; tel we whoop'
Purt'-nigh like we have the croup--
All so
hoarse we'd wheeze an' whoop
An' ist choke a-laughin'.
THE KATYDIDS
Sometimes I keep
From going to sleep,
To hear the katydids
"cheep-cheep!"
And think they say
Their prayers that way;
But
katydids_ don't have to _pray!
[Illustration]
I listen when
They cheep again
And so, I think, they're singing then!
But, no; I'm wrong,--
The sound's too long
And all-alike to be a
song!
I think, "Well, there!
I do declare,
If it is neither song nor prayer,
It's talk--and quite
Too vain and light
For me to listen to all night!"
And so, I smile,
And think,--"Now I'll
Not listen for a little
while!"--
Then, sweet and clear,
Next "cheep" I hear
'S a kiss....
Good morning, Mommy dear!
[Illustration]
BILLY AND HIS DRUM
Ho! it's come, kids, come!
"With a bim! bam! bum!
Here's little
Billy bangin' on his big bass drum!
He's a-marchin' round the room,
With his feather-duster plume
A-noddin' an' a-bobbin' with his bim!
bom! boom!
Looky, little Jane an' Jim!
Will you only look at him,
A-humpin' an'
a-thumpin' with his bam! bom! bim!
Has the Day o' Judgment come
Er the New Mi-len-nee-um?
Er is it only Billy with his bim! bam!
bim!
[Illustration: "HE'S A-MARCHIN' ROUND THE ROOM."]
I 'm a-comin'; yes, I am--
Jim an' Sis, an' Jane an' Sam!
We'll all
march off with Billy an' his bom! bim! bam!
Come hurrawin' as you
come,
Er they'll think you're deef-an'-dumb
Ef you don't hear little
Billy an' his big bass drum!
THE NOBLE OLD ELM
O big old tree, so tall an' fine,
Where all us childern swings an' plays,
Though neighbers says you're on the line
Between Pa's house an'
Mr. Gray's,--
Us childern used to almost fuss,
Old Tree, about you
when we 'd play.--
We'd argy you belonged to us,
An' them
Gray-kids the other way!
Till Elsie_, one time _she wuz here
An' playin' wiv us--Don't you
mind,
Old Mister Tree?--an' purty near
She scolded us the hardest
kind
Fer quar'llin' 'bout you thataway,
An' say she'll find--ef we'll
keep still--
Whose tree you air fer shore, she say,
An' settle it fer
good, she will!
[Illustration: "THE OLD TREE SAYS HE'S ALL OUR TREE."]
So all keep still: An' nen she gone
An' pat the Old Tree, an' says
she,--
"Whose air you, Tree?" an' nen let on
Like she's a-list'nin' to
the Tree,--
An' nen she
![](qr/13030/5.png)
Continue reading on your phone by scaning this QR Code
Tip: The current page has been bookmarked automatically. If you wish to continue reading later, just open the
Dertz Homepage, and click on the 'continue reading' link at the bottom of the page.