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.