Questions and Answers (Blackwood)

No one quite tells me what I want to know; They answer me⁠—and that’s the end of that. For if I ask, “What makes a flower grow?” Their answer wouldn’t satisfy the cat!

If I say: “Daddy, why should snow be white And fall in crystals, no one like the other?” He mumbles gruffly, while he strikes a light: “I’m busy, Tommy. Run and ask your Mother!”

But Mother, when I ask why cuckoos cuck, Just stares at me and says: “God made them so,” And gives me such a wise and solemn look, Which means, of course, she really doesn’t know.

And Nannie’s way is diff’rent altogether, For if I ask why winter days get colder, She gives a grunt and says: “Oh, it’s just weather. You’ll understand all that when you grow older!”