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Title: A Woman Named Smith

Author: Marie Conway Oemler

Release Date: April 8, 2005 [eBook #15591]

Language: English

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A WOMAN NAMED SMITH

by

MARIE CONWAY OEMLER

Author of _Slippy McGee_, etc.

Grosset & Dunlap
Publishers New York

1919

[Frontispiece illustration: "Sophy," he said,
"I have found the lost key of Hynds House"]

To

ELIZABETH HEYWARD OEMLER

_Sometimes my Little Girl._

When you were yet an Awful Baby,
And bawled o' bed-time, I said "Maybe
It is not best to spank or scold her:
Suppose a fairy-tale were told her?"
And gave you then, to my undoing,
The wolf Red Riding-Hood pursuing;
Sang Mother Goose her artless rhyming;
Showed Jack the Magic Beanstalk climbing;
Three Little Pigs were so appealing,
You set up sympathetic squealing!
Then, Bitsybet, you had your mother--
_You bawled until I told another!_

The Awful Baby's gone. Here lately
You bear your little self sedately.
You've shed your rompers; you want dresses
Prinked out with frillies; fluff your tresses;
Delight your daddy, aunts, and mother;
And sisterly set straight your brother.
Your bib-and-tucker days abolished,
Your manners and your nails are polished.
One baby trait remains, thank glory!
You're still a glutton for a story.
Still, Bitsybet, you