Complete Poetical Works by Bret Harte Part 42

If you like, you can try our piano. 'Tain't ours. A man left it here To rent by the month, although Ma says he hasn't been paid for a year.

Sister plays--oh, such fine variations!--why, I once heard a gentleman say That she didn't mind THAT for the music--in fact, it was just in her way!

Ain't I funny? And yet it's the queerest of all that, whatever I say, One half of the folks die a-laughing, and the rest, they all look t'other way.

And some say, "That child!" Do they ever say that to such people as you?

Though maybe you're naturally silly, and that makes your eyes so askew.

Now stop--don't you dare to be crying! Just as sure as you live, if you do, I'll call in my big dog to bite you, and I'll make my Papa kill you, too!

And then where'll you be? So play pretty. There's my doll, and a nice piece of cake.

You don't want it--you think it is poison! Then I'LL eat it, dear, just for your sake!

WHAT MISS EDITH SAW FROM HER WINDOW

Our window's not much, though it fronts on the street; There's a fly in the pane that gets nothin' to eat; But it's curious how people think it's a treat For ME to look out of the window!

Why, when company comes, and they're all speaking low, With their chairs drawn together, then some one says, "Oh!

Edith dear!--that's a good child--now run, love, and go And amuse yourself there at the window!"

Or Bob--that's my brother--comes in with his chum, And they whisper and chuckle, the same words will come.

And it's "Edith, look here! Oh, I say! what a rum Lot of things you can see from that window!"

And yet, as I told you, there's only that fly Buzzing round in the pane, and a bit of blue sky, And the girl in the opposite window, that I Look at when SHE looks from HER window.

And yet, I've been thinking I'd so like to see If what goes on behind HER, goes on behind ME!

And then, goodness gracious! what fun it would be For us BOTH as we sit by our window!

How we'd know when the parcels were hid in a drawer, Or things taken out that one never sees more; What people come in and go out of the door, That we never see from the window!

And that night when the stranger came home with our Jane I might SEE what I HEARD then, that sounded so plain-- Like when my wet fingers I rub on the pane (Which they won't let ME do on my window).

And I'd know why papa shut the door with a slam, And said something funny that sounded like "jam,"

And then "Edith--where are you?" I said, "Here I am."

"Ah, that's right, dear, look out of the window!"

They say when I'm grown up these things will appear More plain than they do when I look at them here, But I think I see some things uncommonly clear, As I sit and look down from the window.

What things? Oh, the things that I make up, you know, Out of stories I've read--and they all pa.s.s below.

Ali Baba, the Forty Thieves, all in a row, Go by, as I look from my window.

That's only at church time; other days there's no crowd.

Don't laugh! See that big man who looked up and bowed?

That's our butcher--I call him the Sultan Mahoud When he nods to me here at the window!

And THAT man--he's our neighbor--just gone for a ride Has three wives in the churchyard that lie side by side.

So I call him "Bluebeard" in search of his bride, While I'm Sister Anne at the window.

And what do I call you? Well, here's what I DO: When my sister expects you, she puts me here, too; But I wait till you enter, to see if it's you, And then--I just OPEN the window!

"Dear child!" Yes, that's me! "Oh, you ask what that's for?

Well, Papa says you're 'Poverty's self,' and what's more, I open the window, when YOU'RE at the door, To see Love fly out of the window!"

ON THE LANDING

(AN IDYL OF THE BAl.u.s.tERS)

BOBBY, aetat. 3 1/2. JOHNNY, aetat. 4 1/2.

BOBBY

Do you know why they've put us in that back room, Up in the attic, close against the sky, And made believe our nursery's a cloak-room?

Do you know why?

JOHNNY

No more I don't, nor why that Sammy's mother, What Ma thinks horrid, 'cause he bunged my eye, Eats an ice cream, down there, like any other!

No more don't I!

BOBBY

Do you know why Nurse says it isn't manners For you and me to ask folks twice for pie, And no one hits that man with two bananas?

Do you know why?

JOHNNY

No more I don't, nor why that girl, whose dress is Off of her shoulders, don't catch cold and die, When you and me gets croup when WE undresses!

No more don't I!

BOBBY

Perhaps she ain't as good as you and I is, And G.o.d don't want her up there in the sky, And lets her live--to come in just when pie is-- Perhaps that's why!

JOHNNY

Do you know why that man that's got a cropped head Rubbed it just now as if he felt a fly?

Could it be, Bobby, something that I dropped?

And is that why?

BOBBY

Good boys behaves, and so they don't get scolded, Nor drop hot milk on folks as they pa.s.s by.

JOHNNY (piously)