Complete Poetical Works

MISS EDITH MAKES ANOTHER FRIEND

     Oh, you're the girl lives on the corner?  Come in—if you want to—
        come quick!
     There's no one but me in the house, and the cook—but she's only a
        stick.
     Don't try the front way, but come over the fence—through the
        window—that's how.
     Don't mind the big dog—he won't bite you—just see him obey me!
        there, now!

     What's your name?  Mary Ellen?  How funny!  Mine's Edith—it's
        nicer, you see;
     But yours does for you, for you're plainer, though maybe you're
        gooder than me;
     For Jack says I'm sometimes a devil, but Jack, of all folks, needn't
        talk,
     For I don't call the seamstress an angel till Ma says the poor thing
        must "walk."

     Come in!  It's quite dark in the parlor, for sister will keep the
        blinds down,
     For you know her complexion is sallow like yours, but she isn't as
        brown;
     Though Jack says that isn't the reason she likes to sit here with
        Jim Moore.
     Do you think that he meant that she kissed him?  Would you—if your
        lips wasn't sore?

     If you like, you can try our piano.  'Tain't ours.  A man left it
        here
     To rent by the month, although Ma says he hasn't been paid for a
        year.
     Sister plays—oh, such fine variations!—why, I once heard a
        gentleman say
     That she didn't mind THAT for the music—in fact, it was just in her
        way!

     Ain't I funny?  And yet it's the queerest of all that, whatever I
        say,
     One half of the folks die a-laughing, and the rest, they all look
        t'other way.
     And some say, "That child!"  Do they ever say that to such people as
        you?
     Though maybe you're naturally silly, and that makes your eyes so
        askew.

     Now stop—don't you dare to be crying!  Just as sure as you live, if
        you do,
     I'll call in my big dog to bite you, and I'll make my Papa kill you,
        too!
     And then where'll you be?  So play pretty.  There's my doll, and a
        nice piece of cake.
     You don't want it—you think it is poison!  Then I'LL eat it, dear,
        just for your sake!