A BABY INTERVIEWED.

To A LITTLE ONE, JUST A WEEK OLD.

Only a baby, ‘thout any hair,

‘Cept just a little hair here and there.

Only a baby, name you have none;

Barefooted and dimpled, sweet little one.

Only a baby, teeth none at all;

What are you good for, only to squalll?

Only a baby, just a week old;

What are you here for, you little scold?

BABY’S REPLY.

Only a baby! what should I be?

Lots ‘o big folks has been little like me.

‘Aint dot any hair! ‘es I have too:

‘Spose’n I have’nt, does it tood grow.

Not any teeth—wouldn’t have one;

Don’t deny my dinner by knawing a bone.

What am I here for? ‘at pretty mean;

Who’s dot a better right, ‘ever you seen?

What am I doot for? did you say;

Eber so many good things, every day.

‘Tourse I squall sometimes, sometimes I bawl,

Zey dassant spant me, ‘cause I’se so small.

Only a baby, ‘es sir, ‘at’s so;

‘N if you only could, you’d be one too.

‘At’s all I have to say : you’re ‘most too old,

Dew I det into bed, toe’s dettin’ cold.

I copied the text verbatim reflecting the spellings and punctuation or lack of in the record.

“A Baby Interviewed.,” Buchanan County Bulletin (Independence, Iowa), 14 March 1873; digital image, Chronicling America (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov : accessed 20 November 2019); citing State Historical Society of Iowa-Des Moines, Iowa, p. 1, col. 3.