Page 19 - Poetry-Whimsy

Inform a lady “which she nussed,”
“That Mrs. B.
At half-past three,
Was that far gone she couldn’t see.”
This lady we
Have mentioned, she
Gave needle-work to Mrs. B.
And at such news
Could scarcely choose
But further needle-work refuse.
Then Mrs. B.
As you’ll agree,
Quite properly—said she, said she
That she would track
The scandal back
To those who made her look so black.
Through Mrs. K.
And Mrs. J.
She got at last to Mrs. A.
And asked her why,
With cruel lie,
She painted her so deep a dye?
Said Mrs. A.,
In some dismay,
“I no such thing could ever say;
I said that you
Much stouter grew
On too much sugar—which you do.”

—Originally published in The Baptist; reprinted in A Manual of
Etiquette by Daisy Eyebright, 1868.

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