Slovenly Betsy

<h2>PHOEBE ANN, THE PROUD GIRL</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0"><span class="f1">T</span>his Phoebe Ann was a very proud girl,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Her nose had always an upward curl.<br/></span></div> </div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image_11.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="649" alt="Illustration" /></div> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">She thought herself better than all others beside,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And beat even the peacock himself in pride.<br/></span></div> </div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image_13.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="657" alt="Illustration" /></div> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">She thought the earth was so dirty and brown,<br/></span> <span class="i0">That never, by chance, would she look down;<br/></span> <span class="i0">And she held up her head in the air so high<br/></span> <span class="i0">That her neck began stretching by and by.<br/></span> <span class="i0">It stretched and it stretched; and it grew so long<br/></span> <span class="i0">That her parents thought something must be wrong.<br/></span> <span class="i0">It stretched and stretched, and they soon began<br/></span> <span class="i0">To look up with fear at their Phoebe Ann.<br/></span></div> </div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image_15.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="653" alt="Illustration" /></div> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">They prayed her to stop her upward gaze,<br/></span> <span class="i0">But Phoebe kept on in her old proud ways,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Until her neck had grown so long and spare<br/></span> <span class="i0">That her head was more than her neck could bear&mdash;<br/></span> <span class="i0">And it bent to the ground, like a willow tree,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And brought down the head of this proud Phoebe,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Until whenever she went out a walk to take,<br/></span> <span class="i0">The boys would shout, &#8220;Here comes a snake!&#8221;<br/></span></div> </div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image_17.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="641" alt="Illustration" /></div> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Her head got to be so heavy to drag on,<br/></span> <span class="i0">That she had to put it on a little wagon.<br/></span> <span class="i0">So don't, my friends, hold your head too high,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Or your neck may stretch, too, by and by.<br/></span></div> </div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image_19.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="647" alt="Illustration" /></div> <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />