Page:Field Poems of Childhood.djvu/226

 Once, when I licked a feller 'at had just moved on our street,

An' father sent me up to bed without a bite to eat,

I woke up in the dark an' saw things standin' in a row,

A-lookin' at me cross-eyed an' p'intin' at me—so!

Oh, my! I wuz so skeered that time I never slep' a mite—

It's almost alluz when I'm bad I see things at night!

Lucky thing I ain't a girl, or I'd be skeered to death!

Bein' I'm a boy, I duck my head an' hold my breath;

An' I am, oh! so sorry I'm a naughty boy, an' then

I promise to be better an' I say my prayers again!

Gran'ma tells me that's the only way to make it right

When a feller has been wicked an' sees things at night!

An' so, when other naughty boys would coax me into sin,

I try to skwush the Tempter's voice 'at urges me within;

An' when they's pie for supper, or cakes 'at's big an' nice,

I want to—but I do not pass my plate f'r them things twice!

No, ruther let Starvation wipe me slowly out o' sight

Than I should keep a-livin' on an' seein' things at night!