Little Orphant Annie.

Little Orphant Annie.
538.4

Little Orphant Annie has come to our house to stay,
To wash the cups an’ saucers up and brush the
crumbs away.
An’ shoo the chickens off the porch and dust the hearth and sweep,
An’ make the fire and bake the bread and earn her board and keep:
An’ all us other children, when the supper things
Is done, We sit around the kitchen fire and has the mostest fun
A-listenin’ to the witch tales ‘at Annie tells about
An’ the gobb’e ‘uns ‘li git you
Ef you don’t watch out!

One’t they was a little boy wouldn’t say his pray- ers,
An’ when he went to bed at night away upstairs
His mammy heard him holler and his daddy heard him bawi.
An’ when they turned the kivvers down he wasn’t there at all;
An’ they seeked him in the rafter-room and cubby- hole and press,
An’ seeked him up the chimney flue, and every- where. I guess,
But all they ever fo found round-about- was jist his pants and
An’ the gobble ‘uns ‘il git you Ef you don’t watch out!

An’ one time they was a little girl ‘ud alius laugh and grin
An’ make fun of every one, and all her blood and kin,
An’ one’t when they was “company” an’ old folks was there
She mocked ’em and she shocked ’em and said she didn’t care,
An’ jist as she kicked her heels and turned to run an’ hide
They was two great big black things a standin’ by her side.
An’ they snatched her through the ceiling ‘fore she knowed what she’s about,
An’ the gobble ‘uns ‘ll git you
Ef you don’t watch out!

An’ Little Orphant Annie says when the blaze is blue
An’ the lamp wick sputters and the wind goes Woo-00,
An’ you hear the crickets quit and the moon is grav
An’ the lightning bugs in den in all squenched away.
You better mind your parents and your teachers fond and dear,
An’ churish them at loves you and dry the or- phant’s tear.
An’ help the poor and needy ones ‘at clusters all about,
Er the gobble ‘une ‘ll git you Ef you don’t watch out!