Volume I Part 30 (1/2)
I won't have any soup to-day.”
The third day comes; O what a sin!
To make himself so pale and thin.
Yet, when the soup is put on table, He screams, as loud as he is able,-- ”Not any soup for me, I say: O take the nasty soup away!
I won't have any soup to-day.”
Look at him, now the fourth day's come!
He scarcely weighs a sugar-plum; He's like a little bit of thread, And on the fifth day, he was--dead!
From the German of Heinrich Hoffman [1798-1874]
THE STORY OF LITTLE SUCK-A-THUMB
One day, mamma said: ”Conrad dear, I must go out and leave you here.
But mind now, Conrad, what I say, Don't suck your thumb while I'm away.
The great tall tailor always comes To little boys that suck their thumbs; And ere they dream what he's about, He takes his great sharp scissors out And cuts their thumbs clean off,--and then, You know, they never grow again.”
Mamma had scarcely turned her back, The thumb was in, alack! alack!
The door flew open, in he ran, The great, long, red-legged scissors-man.
Oh, children, see! the tailor's come And caught our little Suck-a-Thumb.
Snip! snap! snip! the scissors go; And Conrad cries out--”Oh! oh! oh!”
Snip! snap! Snip! They go so fast, That both his thumbs are off at last.
Mamma comes home; there Conrad stands, And looks quite sad, and shows his hands;-- ”Ah!” said mamma, ”I knew he'd come To naughty little Suck-a-Thumb.”
From the German of Heinrich Hoffman [1798-1874]
WRITTEN IN A LITTLE LADY'S LITTLE ALb.u.m