Page:Backblock Ballads and Later Verses (C.J. Dennis, 1918).djvu/25

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And it's such a boah to hev to think of Paw— To hev a secret skeleton laike Paw. Paw, you know, was once a diggah, And he cuts no social figgah. And his mannahs! O, they touch us on the raw. Of course, we're very fond of him, and all thet sort of thing; But we couldn't hev him—could we?—when theah's naice folk visiting.

Haw! It's cost us pawnds and pawnds to care foah Paw. And then, it is so hard to keep him dawk. Why, no later than last Mond'y,  Ai was out with Lady Grundy, When we ran raight into him outsaide the Pawk. Goodness knows! Ai managed, somehow, to elude him with a nod, And Ai said he was a tradesman; but she must hev thought it odd.

You can't picture the ubiquity of Paw, And he's really very obstinate, is Paw. Why, he held to the contention That this most convenient pension Was a thing he hadn't any raight to draw! He said we'd kept him eighteen months, and ought to keep him yet. But mai husband soon convinced him thet he couldn't count on thet.