Page:The Bab Ballads.djvu/108

"What! sound the matrimonial knell
Of worthy people such as these!
Why was I an attorney? Well—
Go on to the sævitia, please."

"Domestic bliss has proved my bane,
A harder case you never heard,
My wife (in other matters sane)
Pretends that I'm a Dicky bird!
 
"She makes me sing, 'Too whit, too wee!'
And stand upon a rounded stick,
And always introduces me
To every one as 'Pretty Dick'!"
 
"Oh, dear," said weeping Baines Carew,
This is the direst case I know"—
I'm grieved," said Bagg, "at paining you—
To Cobb and Polterthwaite I'll go—

"To Cobb's cold calculating ear
My gruesome sorrows I'll impart"—
"No; stop," said Baines, "I'll dry my tear,
And steel my sympathetic heart!"

"She makes me perch upon a tree.
Rewarding me with, 'Sweety—nice!'
And threatens to exhibit me
With four or five performing mice."