Birth-Day Speech, A,

I’m a big little dirl with a coal black eye, 
    Named Alice with Allie to call me by :
I'm six years old! did you know that, pup?
    And am full of spring as a steel rat trap!

O Mammy, you thought I was young and small,
    But look at me now, only see how tall!
And I’m six years old; and I dess I weigh—
    Was it sixty tons, uncle Artie, say?

Oh, sixty pounds. Well, it’s all the same;
    I know who it was, but furdot his name!
Ten pounds a year! On, won’t I be some,
    When I’m old as Mr. Me-thus-da-sa-lum!

I can do, oh, ever and ever so much;
    I can sew with the box, but I mustn’t touch;
I can snarl the braid and spoil the hat,
    And tease my mammy, and touzle the cat.

I can wipe the dishes and break a plate,
    And wash the floor with a muff first-rate;
And sail in the sofa, and drive a chair
    To Boston, Marblehead, anywhere:

Make mammy’s table, and knives and spoons,
    And cradle, all out of my finger-bones;
And curry the toss on drampa’s head,
    With a comb, till it looks all streaky and red.

And I drate many things that I don’t say;
    And I love all the folks, and I want them to play
With me to-day; for I’m six years old,
    And as full of frolic as I can hold.