Slovenly Betsy

<h2>THE CRY-BABY</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0"><span class="f1">&#8220;O</span>h, why are you always so bitterly crying?<br/></span> <span class="i0">You surely will make yourself blind.<br/></span> <span class="i0">What reason on earth for such sobbing and sighing,<br/></span> <span class="i0">I pray, can you possibly find?<br/></span> <span class="i0">There is no real sorrow, there's nothing distressing,<br/></span> <span class="i0">To make you thus grieve and lament.<br/></span> <span class="i0">Ah! no; you are just at this moment possessing<br/></span> <span class="i0">Whatever should make you content.<br/></span></div> </div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image_37.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="642" alt="Illustration" /></div> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Now do, my dear daughter, give over this weeping,&#8221;<br/></span> <span class="i0">Such was a kind mother's advice.<br/></span> <span class="i0">But all was in vain; for you see she's still keeping<br/></span> <span class="i0">Her handkerchief up to her eyes.<br/></span></div> </div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image_39.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="647" alt="Illustration" /></div> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">But now she removes it, and oh! she discloses<br/></span> <span class="i0">A countenance full of dismay;<br/></span> <span class="i0">For she certainly feels, or at least she supposes<br/></span> <span class="i0">Her eyesight is going away.<br/></span> <span class="i0">She is not mistaken, her sight is departing;<br/></span> <span class="i0">She knows it and sorrows the more;<br/></span> <span class="i0">Then rubs her sore eyes, to relieve them from smarting,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And makes them still worse than before.<br/></span></div> </div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image_41.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="643" alt="Illustration" /></div> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">And now the poor creature is cautiously crawling<br/></span> <span class="i0">And feeling her way all around;<br/></span> <span class="i0">And now from their sockets her eyeballs are falling;<br/></span> <span class="i0">See, there they are down on the ground.<br/></span> <span class="i0">My children, from such an example take warning,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And happily live while you may;<br/></span> <span class="i0">And say to yourselves, when you rise in the morning,<br/></span> <span class="i0">&#8220;I'll try to be cheerful today.&#8221;<br/></span></div> </div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image_43.jpg" width-obs="450" height-obs="639" alt="Illustration" /></div> <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />